The Knight and the Pilgrim
by Zura
Summary: Julia Kaye had lived a normal life without ever knowing her birth parents or how she came to be raised in an orphanage. When a strange letter arrives to hint at a violent past she can't remember the pilgrim is pointed towards a far away, misty town that is familiar only in the deepest parts of her subconscious. First of the "Ashes to Blood" series.
1. A Nightmare Correspondence

Chapter 1: A Nightmare Correspondence

It started in such an innocent, simple way. Julia Kaye opened her apartment mailbox like she always did when she came home from work. Inside was a couple bills, an ad flyer for grocery store coupons and an unmarked, sealed folder. She waited until she got inside to relax on the couch before opening the letters. The coupons she tossed in the garbage, the bills were taken directly from her bank account but she opened them anyway just to make sure everything was in order. The folder was interesting, a small, gray thing with no addresses or stamps on it at all. She wondered how it had gotten into her mailbox and thought that it was probably meant for someone else. Curiosity won out, and she tore open the folder.

Inside was something nothing could have prepared her for. It was a small newspaper clipping, a small family photo on the right. It had been torn on the sides, not cut, the only straight edge being the one that ran along the top. The heading read "PARENTS MURDERED, CHILDREN MISSING" Trembling, she read what was certainly the most disturbing thing she had ever seen.

"The bodies of two Silent Hill residents were discovered early this morning by a neighbor. Jason Stormson, 40, and wife Emily Stormson, 39, were found stabbed to death in their homes in a shocking double murder. Their two young children, Alexander and Julia, were missing from the home. Police are collecting evidence but so far no leads have been-"

The text ran out along the torn page. She read it twice, three times, but it still couldn't register. In the picture were a man and a woman she had never seen before, in front was a young boy holding a baby. It was a blurry photo, but the boy was unmistakably her brother, Jonathan. She would know that face anywhere, even though the last time she saw him she was only six. That made the strangers smiling in the picture her parents, the small child in Jon's arm her.

There had to be a mistake, some horrible mistake. She remembered precious little about her past before the orphanage, which she could recall clearly. Jon used to take her wherever he went, ever since she could think. He looked exactly like he did in the picture on the paper, all bright and full of cheer. Once she asked him why they had no Mama and Dada, then he grew very serious. He said, and she would never forget those words, "They're not with us anymore Jewel. You have to learn to take care of yourself."

It was only a few weeks after that she was checked into the orphanage, without Jon. She cried every day, wishing that he would come back, but he never did. When she was old enough, she asked the sisters there what had happened to him. Sadly, they told her that Jon did indeed spend the night there, but he was gone the following morning. He had named them both as Kaye, the name she carried now. Questions that haunted her for a lifetime suddenly leapt out of the past and into her lap. Had he seen the killer? Was he looking for whoever did it now? More then ever, she just wanted to talk to him again, hear his voice. For years she told herself that he had a reason for abandoning her when she needed him the most. Maybe this was it, it had to be. The boy in the picture was Jon, there was no doubting it. Did he send the newspaper clipping? She had to know.

The top of the paper read "TRISTATE NEWS AUGUST 17" but the rest had been torn off. Quickly her mind began racing, and she got off the couch onto the computer. An hour of searching got her nothing but a name, the parent company that had bought out Tristate Publishing years ago. Within five hours, she was on a plane, heading east.

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"Mr. Duffy? There's a young lady here to see you."

"Ah yes, send her in please Carol."

Into his office came a smaller but imposing woman, about 5' 7" but all business. Her smooth, tanned skin framed a oval face, arching eyebrows set with a graceful chin and full, lightly reddish lips . Her hair was shoulder length and dark brown, her figure trim and attractive under the blue blouse and long black skirt she wore. But her most stunning feature were her eyes, glittering green and full of fire. Duffy had never seen such a strong looking person so young.

"Mr. Duffy?" she said cordially, "we spoke on the phone, I'm Julia Kaye."

"Yes Ms. Kaye, please sit." She had a rolling suitcase he didn't even notice, which she pulled up to the chair when she sat. "I understand you want to know about our merger with Tristate? This was a long time ago."

"I know sir, but its very important that I track down a copy of a certain issue of the Tristate. You see, I lost my parents and I believe there is some information in that issue that might be able to help me find out about them."

"Is that so? Well we stopped printing under the Tristate name about twenty years ago. Most of the back issues were destroyed or given away."

"Is there maybe a company record on microfilm somewhere?"

"No ma'am, but I think I know someone that can help. He was the editor of the Tristate until we bought it, a good friend of mine. I'll put you in touch with him. If there's some way to find what you're looking for, he'll know it."

"Thank you Mr. Duffy, you don't know how much this means to me." she said gratefully.

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Thomas Jones was an old man, but still sharp. He was suspicious of meeting someone he didn't know, but he trusted Cal's judgment of people. He saw her coming a mile away, Cal described her dead on. He waved her over to his table in the coffee shop.

"Mr. Jones, thank you so much for seeing me. I know this is a bit unusual." she said, smiling prettily.

"Nonsense. Cal told me all about what you're looking for. I don't do much these days, its good to get my old bones into some action. Now he said you were looking for an old Tristate issue? I edited every day for that paper since 72'."

"I need a certain issue, I don't know the year, only the day, August 17th."

"Well that beats lookin' through every damn one to find what you need. The paper was damn near fifty years old before it got taken over by Global, so worst comes to it you only got to look through fifty August 17s before you find it. Cal said you were looking for your parents?"

"Yes sir, I'm an orphan. I think I can find information about them that was printed that day."

"How'd you know it was out paper?"

"Well…I have a clipping here…"

"Well why did you say so to begin with young lady! I can probably give you the year jus' looking at it."

"Well Mr. Jones…its kind of…I don't know…"

"I can help Miss, you just gotta let me."

Her face lost all of its cheer, and she solemnly reached into her suitcase. She handed him a small clipping, one that he would need his glasses for. "Well let's see here now…oh…oh my…you wanted…"

He looked up at her, her eyes cast down on the floor. "Miss…why are you looking for this?"

She grudgingly brought her gaze up to his. "Because Mr. Jones…I'm in that picture."

Thomas had to take a minute, going back through the many years of his life to a much busier time. "I remember that day, I think. I didn't want to publish such a gruesome story, but it was big news. I got the call from Deputy Mills, he filled me in on the details. I was thinking that day of how could one man be so cruel to good people."

He almost lost his train of thought, but examined the paper more closely. "It's a color photo, probably run off the old Mk printer. The font is still the owner's style, so we're lookin' at anywhere from 75'-80'.

"Do you know anything about that town they're talking about? Silent Hill?"

"Hmm? No I don't recall that. Our region was fairly large at the time, it says small town right here. It was probably from up north more, where there's more country. Let me call a friend of mine…"

It was an old woman this time, shaking as she poured Julia a cup of tea. She sat down and smiled at her, very content. "It's so nice to have visitors." She declared, sipping her tea carefully. "Thomas said you're looking for a town in one of our newsies? Oh, those were the good days. We had so much fun then. Me and Delly would go out on Fridays and…oh I'm sorry my girl, what was it you wanted?"

"I'm looking for a town Mrs. Dorter. I can't seem to find in on any map. It was in your paper in the 70s."

"Hmmm? Well what was it called?"

"Silent Hill."

"Oh…" Mrs. Dorter looked away, then stood up and turned around.

"Is something wrong?" Julia asked.

"Why…would you want to know about that place?"

"Its very important Mrs. Dorter. I need to know some things I can find them there."

"There are no answers for you there, girl. Stay away from that place. Its…been abandoned for years."

"Please Mrs. Dorter, I have to know. My whole life I've needed these answers."

The old woman turned back, something in her eyes that was not there before. "That town is cursed, girl of mine. Sending you there is something I can't do."

"I'll find it Mrs. Dorter. If not from you then from someone else. I don't care about any dangers, I have to know. If you just tell me, I can get it over with faster."

"Yes…I see that. I will tell you, but only because I believe in you" She wrote down a long note on a napkin. Before Julia could thank her, the old woman put her hands on hers. "You just promise me if you're in trouble, you'll get out of there."

"Alright, I will. Thank you."

Mrs. Dorter watched her go from the window, until the car was down the street and out of sight. Why did people seek out that place with such conviction? The memory of that conversation would keep her up that night, she knew. She went to pray.

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The road was torturous and forced her to go slow, the thick woods threatening to swallow up the broken concrete completely. She had bought an entire set of camping gear and supplies to last her a week in the last town before here. The man behind the counter had asked her where she was heading to. She lied and said Canada, she made the mistake of telling someone her true destination a few stops ago. The clerk refused to let her pump gas and gave her back her money. He said she was sick in the head for even trying to go and that he was calling the cops. Julia stole a prefilled gas can on the way out to her car and drove as fast as she dared, hoping to not hear sirens in the background.

It was beginning to get foggy, the higher in elevation she climbed. Finally the dirt road ended in a fenced gate, overlooking a roaring river. Behind the gate was a rusted steel bridge that led to the other side. She could ram right through it with the car, but it was a rental. She got out and searched the area, finding a large rock to back the lock with. She drove on.

The fog got worse and worse until she could only see ten feet in front of her. Slowly creeping upwards into the mountains, the road became more and more erratic and bumpy. After what seemed like an eternity, she came to a part of the road that bordered a cliff, where a large, green sign had been posted. It read in faded and cracked gold lettering, "Welcome to Silent Hill" Julia was still looking at the sign when she hit something and the tire popped suddenly, cracking the silence with a bang. She almost jumped out of her skin, but quickly brought the car to a stop. She cursed her bad luck, the rest she would have to go on foot. The took the keys to the car and unloaded the large knapsack that would hopefully keep her going on her trip in and back to the last town.

"Jon…" she whispered, and took the first step.


	2. Macabre Dreams

Chapter 2: Macabre Dreams

The mountain air was cold, her breath materializing in the air in front of her. Julia had ditched the city clothes, opting for a dark blue pair of thick pants with a matching sweater. The large bag she carried contained a small tent, sealed foods and other things she thought she might need on an extended stay. People she dared ask about the town said it had been abandoned for the most part, but it seemed that people were always going there, either to see if it was really haunted or on dares and childish pranks. The more she learned about the town the more the feeling grew cold in her stomach that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Maybe if she had passed off the strange clipping as some kind of mistake or coincidence, she would be getting up to go work right now. Making small talk with the office bitches just to avoid their politics, glad handing the boss, doing her job and getting out to relax with real friends and maybe a drink or two. Would that have been so bad? To just ignore the hinted at promise of the truth, live the life she had made for herself without anyone's help.

But there was no denying what she felt the moment she saw Jon in that picture. Or was his name Alex? Alex Stormson. Julia Stormson. Her parents, possibly, Jason and Emily. She kept the clipping in her back pocket, so small yet with such a devastating impact. It was her brother in that picture, her only link to the past. Everything she had imagined herself to be was a lie. She wasn't an orphan stranded by a cruel brother, she was an orphan whose family had been taken from her by some sadistic bastard and put somewhere safe by a traumatized youngster who had seen what no one should ever have to see. Somewhere in this desolate, remote place were her long overdue answers or at least a clue to them. It would be worth cleaning up the mess she had left on her way out of the city, just a few important phone calls to the only important people in her life. They would try to stop her, try to go with her perhaps. Walking down the winding mountain road in the fog, she would have preferred some company but it had to be this way.

The breeze was barely noticeable, meandering up the mountain at her. It was fairly cold, but she was warm in her clothes and the exertion from walking kept her body heat up. She was coming close to the town now, able to make out the taller buildings from the fog. Creepy, but she pressed on. When she finally came down into the streets of Silent Hill proper, that gut feeling grew worse. It was as if something had just come through and removed all of the people from what they were doing. Cars were left in the middle of the street, doors closed. One or two were smashed into a telephone pole or building, still no open doors to indicate maybe someone had gotten out. Everything was faded and dusty, the businesses and buildings without a single light on. The town lived up to its namesake, there were no birds chirping, no people moving, no wind rustling. It was perfectly quiet, oppressively quiet. Julia actually stopped for a moment dead in her tracks, considering turning back. Something clanked on a metal garbage can from around the corner, not too far away. She put the thoughts out of her head and went to investigate the sound, at least the fog seemed to not be as bad down here.

When she turned the corner, she could find no trash can or any sign there had been one. It was just another empty street with empty buildings running down it. Funny though, it sounded exactly like a trash can.

"Could use a few hours sleep." she said aloud, weaving a hand through her dark hair. There was a large building a few blocks over that was either a hotel or an apartment building from all the rooms and the style of the design. If nothing else, she could make that her base camp to go trying to find someone that could give her some information. The sound of her footsteps clipping across the worn street was the only sound around, despite herself Julia walked a little faster.

The building in question was an apartment building, not a shabby one by all means. If it could just get a little sun and maybe a few plants out front, it would be a nice place to live. Hell, this town would be a nice place to live if it wasn't rumored to be haunted and the fog cleared out from it a little bit. She had grown so accustomed to city life that she'd forgotten the simple pleasure of being out in nature, surrounded by trees and water instead of concrete and glass. Once she was done here, maybe she would come back to visit, to get away from it all.

Or maybe somewhere else that has people in it, she mused. There were stone steps leading to a row of mailboxes and the entrance. The wooden double doors into the apartments had a long piece of colored glass in the middle, one of them askew, inviting her inside. She stepped briskly past the door, hinges creaking as she moved them. A blue-gray carpet covered the floors, the gray enhanced by the dust. Ahead of her were a set of stairs with a white guard rail, the painting slightly cracked with age. Next to the stairs was a hall with rooms going down and turned, on her immediate left an open door with a small sign marked "OFFICE" and underneath "RENT DROP OFF - NO CASH". The office was cramped and stuffy, the one window in the corner had light leaking out from the sides of heavy curtains. Why someone would pull the curtains in such a small room she couldn't guess, but pulling them apart let the feeble glow from outside in. There wasn't much in the office, a desk with table light and green chair, some papers on it that looked like lease contracts. A filing cabinet with unmarked drawers and a small waste basket rounded out the rest of the office. Julia set her pack down and clicked the small lamp on, moving around to sit at the desk. The papers on it were indeed a rental contract, signed at the bottom. Strange, someone had put the day, 1/16, but not the year. She flipped through the pages in case whoever had signed them had slipped up somewhere, but next to every signature was the same 1/16. Why would someone do that with something that important? Courts were very picky about the legal aspects of those little details in case someone had to be evicted, she knew well. Maybe that's why the manager was looking at it, there was something wrong with this and he'd spotted it. One of the pages told her that it would be room 312 this person was staying at. She checked the desk drawers and found a set of keys, none of them with any identifying tag. There was only ten or so, it was better then having to find something to break down a door with. It would be easier to just find a room on the first floor, but she was curious about who rented 312. The signature was completely worthless as far as showing a name went, like a doctor's.

Leaving her pack behind, Julia creaked up the stairwell. Thankfully windows had been installed at each end of the hallways, allowing enough illumination to see well but not completely dispersing the shadows. It wasn't as dusty as she thought it would be, just a thin enough layer to be gross. She had an uneasy feeling about this, as if she was doing something she shouldn't be. Why not? There was no one around to argue. Technically it was trespassing, but who was going to arrest her when it was obvious no one was there to press charges or even make the arrest.

312 was right by the staircase as she came up to the third floor, down a little ways. She heard a faint sigh from the building ahead of her, like someone had shifted their weight off a certain spot. It might have been the building, it was certainly old enough to make noise by itself. Regardless, she called out "Hello?" Only silence answered her back, Julia shrugged it off and tried the handle to the room. It was locked, as she suspecting it would be and she set about trying all of the keys on the ring. Four attempts and the metal slid perfectly into the lock. With a smug grin, she clanked the lock open and pushed open the door.

Nothing could prepare her for the sight that greeted her eyes. The room was small, sparsely decorated with furniture. Light was coming in from large windows in the living room that had a good view of the surrounding buildings, but that wasn't what got her attention. The room was absolutely spattered with blood, covering the lone couch, tables, carpeting and even the ceiling. There were bodies lying pools of blood that had seeped into the floor, six or seven of them strewn about the apartment. They seemed to have been rent by claws or a large teeth, limbs broken off at the joint and scattered around. Worse, they didn't seem to be human bodies at all. Some were missing parts like heads, but instead of a severed portion at the neck it was flat and undamaged, as if the creature never had a head to begin with. Julia was paralyzed with fear, staring at the ghastly scene in front of her. The memory of the noise she had shrugged off moments ago hit her like a brick and she bolted into action, jumping down the stairs, not even bothering to close the awful door. She ran from the stairs straight of the building, only remembering then that her pack was still in the office. The images of what was above her and the terror she felt overrode the rational part that told her she might need the supplies, so she ran on. The buildings loomed around her menacingly, the fog containing hordes of those deformed creatures that she couldn't see. Julia didn't stop running until she was going up the mountain road again, her lungs and legs burning in pain. She looked over her shoulder to make sure nothing was following her and kept going, at a slow jog. Her breaths were ragged and heavy, but she was quickly out of sight of that horrible place.

She turned the corner to see a welcome sight, her car still parked where she left it. There was no way she could get it all the way back to Brahams, but at least it hadn't been messed around with. She was sweating but still felt cold, sitting down in the driver's seat to regain her breath. It hadn't occurred to her 'til now that someone else driving down this way might run right into her car. Then again, who was stupid enough to come out here besides her? The old woman's warning came back to her, just like Julia promised she had seen trouble and was getting the hell out of here. Moving on, she kept a good pace back up the hill. Going out for runs at night was one of her exercises back in the city, it was paying off now. She was still planning out how long it would take her to get back to the main road running by the Silent Hill turn off when she stopped in her tracks. No, this was impossible…

The road had been cracked by a gaping maw of a canyon. It was as if something had come through and torn out the earth, chunks of road and rock strewn about the ending of the road or edge of the cliff she realized. Gingerly she stepped out to the ledge and looked over. She couldn't see the other side of the canyon or the bottom, mist shrouding everything. She had seen this in a movie once, she picked up a large piece of road and tossed it over the side, waiting to hear the sound of it hitting the bottom. Moments passed and nothing came back up, which meant the bottom was so far she couldn't even hear the stone hit. It was too crazy to be real, like a bad nightmare she couldn't wake up from. What the hell was going on here? What had she done?

Julia had been alone most of her life, she was tough, smart and uncompromising. Every challenged she faced she overcame with her intellect and her stubborn will, refusing to be defeated. This time, she simply sank to her knees and started crying. Everyone had tried to tell her, warned her and tried to stop her from coming here, but like always she wouldn't take anyone else's control and came anyway. Now she was stuck, defenseless, clueless, hopeless in a town that was only beginning to frighten her with its true nature. She didn't know what to do, where to go and she was scared out of her wits.

She cried.


	3. The Horror Show

Chapter 3: The Horror Show

She had no more tears. They had made wet spots on her sweater and pants from streaming down her cheeks, but she was done. With her sleeve Julia dried her face, shuddering in the chill mountain air both because she was cold and she was shaking off despair that had taken her in its grip. She didn't know what was going on, but she would be damned if she was going down without a fight. So the town wouldn't let her go? She'll make it wish she never came.

"Get up." She ordered herself. Grudgingly her legs obeyed, hefting her up. She breathed deep and steady, enhancing her calm. Time to think straight, stay sharp, stay alive. First thing first, go back to the apartments and get your bag. There's no way around it, she needed what was in there. Second thing, find something to defend yourself with, even if its only a bat. It had been years since she last played softball, but one doesn't forget how to swing. Last, she would need some kind of light or lamp to take with her when it got dark, a hardware or department store would be perfect. But she had to get her pack first, had to go back into that apartment. Would whatever did that still be lurking inside the building? She didn't want to think about it, but finding a weapon just moved to the top of the list. She gathered up her courage and took the first step back to Silent Hill.

What had seemed simply creepy before now made her stomach tighten. Every corner had a threat behind it, every dark alley contained a creature just waiting for her to turn back. She searched the cars she came across cautiously, careful to check over her shoulder before much time had gone by. She didn't find anything useful in the cars unfortunately. One of them, a red two door Cadillac, had the keys still in the ignition. The turned the engine, but nothing, not even a cough. The battery was probably shot to hell, but on impulse she took the keys and opened the trunk. Inside was the usual trunk bric-a-brac, spare wheel, tire iron, couple bottles of oil, a jack. She could change the wheel on her car now, she mused, but that would only do so much good. There was nowhere to drive to now and gas wasn't an infinite supply. It would be satisfying to run something over that chased her, but what if in the thick fog she hit a person? Well, maybe not a person, but something in the road she couldn't see until it was too late. There was no other way other people were here.

She picked up the tire iron, feeling its weight in her hand. It had different fitting on each end, twisted in the middle to give the user more force when unscrewing bolts. It wasn't much, but she felt better already just having it. The apartment building was only a block away, at least now she was ready. Her heart beat faster as the building waited ahead of her, growing larger and the iron grew warm and slick in her hand from perspiration. No turning back now.

The door was still wide open from when she had come crashing through there not so long ago. She could see into the hallway and up the stairs a little from the street, sitting innocently and unperturbed. Gingerly and quietly as possible, she went inside. Nothing seemed to have changed, she could see her bag right where she left it and the lamp still on. She peeked into the office to make sure nothing was in there, then kept her eyes trained on the hallway while she grabbed her bag. She backed out the door and hurried into the street, eyeing the building suspiciously. Slinging the pack on, Julia moved away back towards the way she had originally come. She was about to turn around when some kind of movement from above caught her eye. Had on of the curtains on the second floor just moved? She scanned the windows carefully, but she didn't see any that were moving still. It could have been fatigue, but she wasn't going to trust that option again. Keeping herself in the middle of the street, she studied the building until she was almost out of its sight, then turned and jogged a couple blocks down. The pair of eyes watching her from the second floor waited until she disappeared around the corner to start moving again.

She relieved to be done with that task, as minor as it was. She still needed some equipment, a better weapon and somewhere to stick out the night. The thought of staying in her car crossed her mind, but no, that would be entirely unsafe. Whatever had attacked Room 312 wouldn't be stopped by thin panes of glass. She hadn't even thought about going to sleep yet, how could she? A room with no windows, no other rooms, heavy things to bar the door with and something to sleep on, that would be the only way to get some shut eye. She made a vow right then and there to never go out wandering at night, this place was bad enough during the day.

She passed by a number of stores that were of no use, an old ice cream parlor, barber shop, pharmacy. That sounded interesting, she would have to remember where that store was. They would likely have painkillers and medical supplies that might come in handy. It was an unsettling thought, but one she had to bear in mind. Further down the street only brought more stores, more useless items. Some apartments and city buildings starting to take shape after the shops.

"City records." she said aloud. No, police records even better. They might have something on what happened to her parents. Finding the station would be a chore, she badly needed a map of some kind of the area. The buildings were becoming more residential the farther she came from the area she was just in, so she turned back, heading up a different street. Six more blocks up the new street left her empty handed, and she turned down the last one, the road that connected to the mountains that led her here. On the right were grass and trees, a light railing running along some path. She didn't want to investigate there quite yet, although it did look fairly pretty despite the surroundings. Toluca Lake would be farther out that direction, she had seen it while she was still driving.

Another four blocks and her heat leapt. There was a small tourist store crammed in between a carpet store and a coffee shop. The large windows, though mostly too opaque too see through, showed trinkets and memorabilia on the inside. They were bound to have maps, they just had to. The glass door read "You're Home! Welcome to Silent Hill!" in bold red letters. To her dismay, the door had been locked. Julia looked around her, seeing nothing and no one. Shielding her face, she swung the tire iron into the front on the glass. It cracked and shuddered, but didn't break. She hit it again more forcefully and it imploded noisily, shards raining over the shop's floor. Reaching in, she unlocked the door and entered.

The place was loaded with buyable, overpriced items for the visiting city types that just screamed tacky to Julia. The kind of crap you find at the circus or carnivals that you pay extra for even though it was probably hand made by a pet monkey. Finally she spotted the maps behind the counter and almost gleefully rifled through them. The town was apparently divided into a few separate parts, she seemed to be in the south part of town, connected to Highway 73. She would have to go down Nathan street all the way and make it up to Sanford, then Bachman, then Bloch which would take her across the drawbridge and into the center of town. The police station was sitting on Sagan across the river. She felt like she had been here before, the names of the streets were oddly familiar. At least she knew how to get there, possibly where she could find some answers and probably a shotgun. She would feel much safer with a 12 gauge, even if firing it made her shoulder black and blue.

Stuffing the maps into her pack, Julia looked around for something else that might be of use. It took a bit of searching, but was delighted to find a box of flashlights. Batteries were also behind the counter - considerably marked up - both of which she packed away. Heading out the door, a positive feeling replaced the gloom she was feeling. An hour or two of walking would take her in the directions she needed to go. She was trekking peacefully down Nathan when she heard in the distance some kind of horn, almost like a mining horn when the workers changed shifts. It was coming from somewhere close by because it filled the air around her with the sound. The upbeat feeling she had stole away, the grip on the iron in her hand getting tight. All of a sudden, the sky began to darken considerably. It got darker and darker, much too fast to be sunset. She couldn't see the well very quickly, then she couldn't see at all. In pure darkness, she fumbled for the flashlight she'd just picked up, panicking. It felt like the street under her had moved somehow, she hurriedly flipped on the light.

If the canyon had confused and frightened her, this was something that words could not express. It was as if the entire town had been replaced right under her with a twisted, metal version of itself. Gone was the fog that dominated the town, replaced by an inky blackness the same as a moonless night. The buildings around her seemed to have aged dramatically, paint and windows cracked and falling apart or replaced by rusty bars. Everything was metal and rusted, even the street under her had been transformed into massive plates of chain link, supporting the entire ground over an endless abyss below. It was almost too much for her to take given the day's unsettling events. She pinched herself on the arm as hard as she could, but the images assaulting her remained. She reached down and checked the rusty metal under her feet, it was cold and unyielding, solid. It wasn't real. It can't be real. She noticed too, that it was vibrating slightly. Were they flying through space or…

She whirled around, pointing the flashlight around until she saw it. It was crawling along the ground, a gray, doll-like thing that seemed to be made of some gray material. It had no face or other discernable parts other then its freakish limbs, in its right…paw, it held a knife. A bloody knife.

Julia stuttered out a muffled scream, dropping her pack. It was coming straight at her, shambling along the best its little doll body could. Her eyes were wide with terror, one hand holding the flashlight, the other gripping the tire iron so hard it hurt. It came within five feet of her, stumbling over its own clumsy feet, trying to get at her. It swung at her legs and she backed up, almost tripping over her pack. It came still, swinging again but Julia just lifted up her foot and when she brought it down she swung the tire iron down with force added to by fear. It connected with the doll's head, a sickening crunching sound accompanying the creature's gray head splitting open. Blood spurted grotesquely from the wound, but the creature was still on its feet. She hit its hand with the knife next, knocking it away and kept hitting until it stopped moving.

It only took a few moments for the adrenaline to slow down and the sight of the broken doll body, its blood dripping through the grate below them for Julia to throw up. The vomit mostly passed right through, falling out of sight into the nothingness under her. She was in way over her head, in this crazy place that was worse then anything she had ever imagined. Something else was coming and she got up, scanning with her tiny light, wiping her mouth. Another doll creature was coming…and another behind it. A sound in a different direction caught her attention and she whipped the light over to see at least three more coming her way. She turned to run and shouted in shock, the chain link ground ending only twenty feet or so behind her, dropping off into the void beyond. She never thought in a million years it would end this way, but they weren't taking her down so easy. She turned back to face them, arm cocked back like a spring. Even with no eyes, they converged on her perfectly, drawing closer with every ragged step.

"C'mon you sons of bitches! I'll kill you all!' she shouted angrily.

Almost as if they could understand her, they stopped moving simultaneously. Julia blinked, uncertain if that had worked. Suddenly, they all shifted and turned away, shambling away from her in every direction. She was about to wonder why she didn't try that in the first place when she heard a different sound altogether. It was someone running across the chain link she realized, running towards her. She braced herself for what was coming.

From around the corner of the building came a bobbing light, shaking crazily. She trained hers on it and saw some kind of metal thing with a large blade for an arm and a wide circular one on the other side. Instead of charging at her though, the light on its head found the doll creatures trying to run away, and the metal thing proceeded to hack them to pieces. They were too short to overcome the metal monster's reach, it decimated the three on her left with quick, brutal strokes and reversed direction, chasing down the other two that had split up and cutting them down. It wasted no movements, each blow a killing one that tore the dolls in bloody halves. The grisly task done, it flicked its metal arm a couple of times rapidly. She had seen that in samurai movies once, it was a move to get the blood off a sword's surface. The creature's light switched back to her, blinding her like a deer caught in the headlights. She tried to keep from shaking but the metal thing drew nearer, its long arm out to the side menacingly. It stopped a few feet from her, and took off its sword arm, sliding it into its hip. It reached up with its hand to its head, and she heard a click and its light shut off.

Without the other light to interfere, she could see the creature quite clearly. It was outfitted in some shabby, dinged up looking, dull gray armor that didn't quite cover all of its body. On its other arm was a large, heavy looking disc of metal, well worn with blows and scratches. Around its neck was a thick metal ring, its head a curious looking helmet and some kind of face mask. It reached up with its free hand, which had a metal piece on the back of the hand and a black material covering the fingers, and removed the mask. Underneath was a man, a normal man. He was very pale, thin faced, his cheeks somewhat hollow. His eyes were sunken in slightly but they were soft and brown, calm despite what had just happened.

"Come with me." he said simply.

"Wh-who are you?" she stammered.

"Me? I'm…Nobody. You can call me Nobody. It would be better if you came with me before others come."

"Others?"

"More of them." he said, nodding towards the doll bodies.

Julia realized she was still holding the iron in the air and relaxed her arm, feeling foolish. This was a person, a real person, and he had just saved her life. "What's going on around here?"

"I can tell you what I know, but we need to get moving." he said urgently.

"Oh…okay…"

"Grab your bag, let's get into that building."

He turned away from her, clicking on the light on his head. Julia quickly picked up her pack and caught up, scanning the area for any more enemies.

"It's okay, there's none of them anywhere close by." he assured, opening the handle to the first building they came to. He walked right on in, not waiting to see if maybe there was something behind the door. It was another apartment building, but the inside was just like the outside, decrepit, decaying, disgusting. It looked like it was about to be destroyed by a wrecking ball, or maybe someone had come through with a sledgehammer and tried to do it themselves. The man in front of her was checking door handles, most were locked but he found and open one and beckoned her to enter. They checked the small one bedroom together, but it was mostly empty, a dirty couch and broken chairs in the bedroom the only furniture.

The man set down his shield and removed a small hatchet from behind it, then went to work on the chairs, smashing them up into smaller chunks and piling them in front of the couch. Julia absently sat down, not caring how filthy it was.

"Be right back." he promised, and she heard chopping and breaking sounds coming from somewhere else. He returned moments later, shutting the door behind him and locking it. With what he was carrying, a decent sized pile of wood was built up, and he fumbled around his pockets for a lighter, getting the blaze going.

"Not going to last." he observed, and made three more trips back out for more wood. Each time she wanted to say, screw the stupid fire and keep the door closed, but she kept her tongue. He built up a large stock of wood and tended to the fire, warming up his hands. The apartment was lighting up pretty well, and he switched off his helmet light, moving around to the other side of the fire, slumping down against the wall, looking at her. He sighed heavy, removing his helmet, letting his short, ragged dark hair out.

"I bet you have a lot of questions."

"Yeah…like…what the fuck…"

"I don't know where to begin so you'll just have to ask what you want to know." he said, running a hand through his hair.

"Okay…let's start with what the hell just happened outside."

"I don't really know myself exactly what makes it happen. You heard the siren didn't you?'

"Yeah."

"I just call it the Darkness. It comes every so often, not every day but enough for you to know its never far. It brings…the other Silent Hill, the one beneath the surface, the one that comes from somewhere evil."

"Why?"

"I've been looking for that answer for a long time. It has to do with this town, its origins, its history. And the people in it."

"What about it?'

"They used to call this town "The Place of the Silent Spirits", a long time before white men ever landed on this continent. This was where the holiest of ceremonies took place, perhaps the darkest as well. It was abandoned more then once for more then one reason. People are drawn here I guess, they have been for a long time."

"Well, I'm looking for someone. My brother, I haven't seen him since I was six. I thought maybe I could find something about him or about my parents…see I'm an orphan. I think I used to live in this town."

He nodded. " It's quite possible you'll find the truth here. No one comes to Silent Hill without a reason. The only problem is that the truth isn't always what they want to hear."

"What about you? Why are you here? Why are you dressed in armor?'

"I'm here by choice. I made the armor because bullets run out, but my arm won't fail me against the things that lurk here."

"What are they?'

He shrugged. "Who knows. Maybe its just a bad dream that we can't wake up from."

"How long have you been here?'

"Me? I…its been a while since I thought about that…what year is it?"

Julia tells him. Nobody looks slightly surprised, scratching his chin. "Wow that's…almost ten years now."

"My god…what have you been doing in this hell for that long?"

"It's story I don't want to tell at the moment. You were looking for your brother?"

"Yeah, his name's Jon Kaye…or maybe Alex Stormson."

"I'm sorry, I haven't met either of them. What's your name?"

"I'm Julia…I…I'm not sure if my last name is Kaye or Stormson."

"That's interesting."

She remembered the clipping in her pocket, and fished it out. "I can't remember my parents, all I know is that my brother took care of me, but he called himself Jon. That's him in the picture, he looks exactly like in my memory. I know its him."

"That's you?'

"The baby, I guess."

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I just want to know what happened, I have to find him. I just figured I could find something here."

"I would tell you to get out of here and go back home, but I think it's a little too late for that isn't it?'

"Yeah…I can't leave now if I wanted to. There's this big crater where the highway should be."

Again, he nodded. "I've heard of that from the few people I've met."

"You know other people that live here?"

"Live isn't quite the right word. Most of the time they're like you, looking for something dear to them and they don't know what they've gotten themselves into. I try not to think how many have met their end in this place."

"Woulda been my end if you hadn't come…how did you know where to find me?'

"I've been following you since you came screaming out of that apartment building."

"I don't remember…" but she thought about and realized she had been screaming bloody murder most of the way out of the town. Why couldn't she remember that? "I saw…something horrible in one of the rooms."

"Yeah, I saw it too. Unspeakable things happen here even in the daylight. I've grown more or less accustomed to it."

Some warning flag triggered in her head and she was suddenly suspicious of this man. "Why were you following me?" she demanded.

"I don't usually see people much. Silent Hill…has a way of keeping people apart. I heard screaming so I was checking out the building when you came back."

"It was you watching me from the second floor."

"Yes. I was trailing you but I lost track when the Darkness came. Looks like I got there just in time."

"Thank you, by the way."

"Think nothing of it."

For a while the fire snapped and popped, dancing on the floor. Julia stared at it, the mesmerizing movements focusing her thoughts of what had happened today.

"I need to get to the police station on Sagan." she stated.

"That's across the lake. Why do you need to go there?'

"I'm hoping I can find some records of my parent's case. And maybe a gun or two, this tire iron doesn't really make me feel safe."

"Careful, you might be glad to have it. You did some nice work on the first doll with it."

"That was pure luck. I've never been so freaked out in my entire life." she admitted.

He chuckled softly, as if that wasn't anything to be worked up about. "It gets easier to deal with the more you see it. But enough of that, you'd better get some sleep."

"What? I can't go to sleep here!"

"Don't trust me?"

"No its just…its…I don't want to sleep in a place like this."

"I can go, just lock the door behind me." he offered.

"No, please stay. I just don't really feel like resting."

"I'm not going to be around to watch your back all the time. You should get some Z's in while you can."

"Can't you…come with me? I need help making it to the station and getting around."

"Sorry, I can't help you. Whatever you have gotten yourself mixed up in, no one can solve the problems for you. Besides, you might be here longer then you expected, you need to learn to fend for yourself."

"Then why are you here? How can you come to my rescue once if you're going to let me go out the next day and possibly killed?"

"I can't protect you Julia Stormson. I can't protect anyone. I suggest you get some sleep while you can."

She didn't like that response, but he had a point. It had been a long, stressful day, and although this place was horrible she was pretty tired. Julia slid off her pack and stretched out on the couch, and it felt good. Her eyes seemed to close on their own will, but she refused to sleep just yet.

"Hey Nobody…"

"Yeah?"

"Am I ever going to get out of here?"

"Once the town is down with you I imagine you'll be allowed to leave. Or more accurately, when you are done with yourself."

"I don't understand." she said, yawning.

"You will, someday."

She drifted off pleasantly, despite where she was and what had happened to her that day she didn't have a nightmare.


	4. Reptilian Undertones

Chapter 4: Reptilian Undertones

When she woke up, the faint smell of smoke still lingered in the air. The fire had gone out, there was barely any trace that it had been there in the first place. The window behind her was letting foggy light in. How long had she been asleep? It wasn't night when the siren went off. Everything had gone back to normal, the room was dusty and the couch still fairly filthy but the walls were still painted and solid looking. On the other side they were peeling and stained with God knows what, looking aged to the point of falling over. She realized that Nobody wasn't there and quickly got up, holding the tire iron as she inspected the other room. He wasn't in the apartment at all, what happened? Uneasily she checked the door but it was locked. The window? No, it didn't open. Maybe he had found a key and locked it from the outside. That made sense.

She put her pack on and checked her map. Same way, just follow Nathan Street. Be alert, don't let them get the drop on you. You can do it Julia. Don't quit now. She unlocked the door and peered carefully into the hall. Nothing seemed to be out of place, she tip toed out and shut the door behind her. The faint sound of paper rustling caught her ear and she turned back around. On the door a piece of writing had been attached with a simple thumb tack. She took it off, curious.

"She is an angel no one knows only,  
I can see the Lady of the Door,  
they cannot walk along her Bridge,  
of Thread, they fall from the weight,  
of their crimes."

"Did you put that here?" she asked Nobody, wherever he was. There didn't seem to be another explanation. What did it the note mean? It was kind of scary, but on the other hand, it kind of made her feel better knowing that it was there. Why, she couldn't explain. Shrugging, she went out into the street.

There wasn't any trace of the world she had seen before. Everything seemed to be exactly the way it was right before she heard the siren yesterday. Was it yesterday? She dug through her pack and found the sports watch she used on her jogs. Strange, it read '77:34' for the time and all of the days along the bottom had been lit up. The watch otherwise seemed to be ticking along as normal, so she held onto it. The fog didn't seem as bad as the day before, allowing slightly more visibility. That would be a help getting all the way to Sagan.

Walking along almost casually, she kept her senses alert. It was almost comical how numb people became to the simple things when they lived life without that primal instinct, that fear that made everything else seem dull. It hadn't been even two days and already she was adjusting to living like it was her last. Everything seemed sharper, clearer, even the smell of things that she would have passed by at some other time she picked up from a distance. Even though she was still scared, she felt…ready.

She went along Nathan, watching the smoky mist on the lake to the right. It was so tranquil, quiet, if this wasn't a hell on earth it would be pretty. A sound to her left jerked her straight out of reverie, body frozen, hand up. There was a doll poking around a car, sniffing the air. Odd, since it didn't have a nose that she could make out, but that's what it seemed to be doing. Slowly she bent down to the street and picked up a small piece of rock. It scraped the concrete ever so slightly and the doll's head snapped around, probing for more sound. As hard as she could without moving her feet, she threw the rock back the direction she had came. It bounced off a building and clattered to a halt in the mist behind her. The doll immediately took off in that direction, shuffling away. When it was out of eyesight she forced herself to walk, not run, moving as quickly as possible. When she felt far enough away she jogged a little bit, but not far. She didn't want to inadvertently run into something else trying to get away from a different monster in the first place.

After nearly half an hour of walking by her figuring, Nathan had turned into County Highway 26. On her right was a small, dilapidated building that seemed about ready to fall over. There was a small sign out front that read "Silent Hill Historical Society". She snorted derisively, what could possibly be more foul? She merged onto Sanford, the only traffic on the desolate street. Some massive building was taking shape on her right, curious she watched it emerge from the fog. Easily the largest building she had seen so far, it was a shell of its former grandeur. A massive hotel with rows upon rows of windows, the sign proclaiming its name had fallen apart or torn off. It appeared to be mostly burned but still standing. There was a collapse at the main door, if she wanted to get in then she would have to find some other way, probably a broken window. Old hotels were scary enough when you were all alone, large empty halls possibly containing any manner of creatures. She wouldn't go in there if she didn't have to.

She turned onto Bachman, heading north. It was a residential area now, there were many traces of life that had suddenly just stopped. A bike here and there, lots of cars, even some children's toys outside a couple houses. Whatever happened to the townspeople, like Pompeii it had taken them by surprise and had taken them all. It must have to do with the Darkness as Nobody called it. She couldn't think of a better name for it or a better explanation for where everyone was. Had they brought this horror on themselves? No one deserved to be trapped here unless they had done something wrong. Well, she hadn't done anything wrong, but she came here on her own will.

The spire was visible first, then the rest of the church. It was a simple building, very New England in its style. Painted a stark white, the four corners of the building rose into small steeples, covered in slate gray roofing. The roof was dominated by the central steeple, almost larger then the base of the building, a cross at the very top. It had large windows along the side, it was too misty to see into the center. The courtyard was terse, a brick wall encircling the grass that lay on either side of the stone path leading to the steps of the church. The wall had an additional row of black iron fencing, spiked at the top and running along the top of the wall to the gate, a framework of the same metal with a small latch. She wasn't a religious person, but she found herself going through the gate and up the path. The large double doors had been spared the white paint, showing the ancient splintering wood that was didn't have the ability to hide its age like the rest. She tried the handle and it swung easily open, inviting her inside.

Thankfully deserted, it seemed to be in perfect condition. There was a small altar at the front, everything else very basic and unadorned. She walked over to the altar, a large bible sitting on it, closed. A page had been marked, she opened the book to it. A small box had been placed inside, someone had cut a section of the pages out to accommodate it. Julia took it out, the box was thin and well made, something you might put jewelry in. There was a lock on it she realized, the tiny keyhole barely visible in the dim light coming in. She put it on the floor and dropped the tire iron straight down on it, smashing the lid in. Picking apart the pieces, she pulled something metal from the box, a key. It was three inches long, a shiny copper and unmarked. She pocketed the key and searched for something else of value, but it was otherwise empty.

The bridge wouldn't be far now , just a little further down Bloch. There was a gas station right after the church, she almost stopped to check around but decided against it. She wasn't sure how much daylight she had left and she could always come back. Without a pen to mark her map with she would just have to remember that it was on Bloch. Walking on, it wasn't very long before she could hear the sound of water and the drawbridge came into view. The streets were lifted up by the cables, making crossing impossible until she lowered them. Peering across the lapping waters, she looked for the other bridge that was supposed to be on Finney St. It didn't seem to be there at all, that can't have been good. There was a hut where this bridge began, a mostly glass structure that was probably the controls. She let herself in, as she assumed there was a large panel with all kinds of buttons just waiting to be pushed. In the center was a large red button without a helpful label like the rest, next to it an opening for a key. She punched the red button but nothing happened, no gears churning the bridge back down. Was it out of power or…she remember the key and tried it on the hole. It slid in perfectly and when she twisted it gingerly the red button lit up from underneath. She hit it again and the silence was broken by heavy hydraulics coming to life. It was so sudden she jumped, taking a deep breath to calm her nerves. Julia went out onto the road and waited for the drawbridge to flatten out and the noise to stop before making her way across.

She was thinking of a conversation she had with a friend a few days ago when she almost passed by the police station completely. It was a fairly unimpressive building, squat, barely two stories. It went on quite a bit behind the front but just looking at it straight on was disappointing. It had a large stone staircase leading up to old fashioned doors with "Silent Hill Police Dept." lettered on both the opaque glass insets. Even the brass handles were worn with age, the door creaked ever so slightly when she opened it.

It looked like a hurricane had gone through the station a long time ago. Papers and pieces of the walls were scattered across the lobby floor, smashed glass and garbage strewn about. It was hard to tell if this had been the work of a person or something else, the creatures here were violent but not against most inanimate objects. There was a reception desk in front of her, rows of offices and desk to her left and a staircase on the right. She tried the offices first, getting the obvious out of the way first. She set down her pack in the hallway leading out, if she had to make a quick escape this time she could nab it on the way. The offices were musty, the smell of paper and the old building permeating the area. She checked underneath every desk she came to carefully, like a scared three year old checking under the bed for things to go bump in the night. There wasn't anything of use in the desks she found until she tried the last one against the wall. The butt of a gun was sticking out from a holster, she almost dropped the iron she was so excited. It was a high quality .45, slightly customized. She popped out the clip with practiced ease and to her utter delight found it full. The safety was on of course, but this gun was loaded. Awkwardly she tucked the iron into a loop on her belt, pulling the holster onto her shoulder. Rummaging through the cabinet, she found a small flashlight that attached to the underside of the barrel. Things were looking up, for once.

She twisted the light on, swooping the gun around the room. She almost wanted to pop a round to make sure everything was in working order, but she didn't want to expend bullets in case she couldn't find any extra ammo. There had to be some lying around here somewhere, the gun ought to take regulation bullets. The flicked off the safety with her thumb and inspected the other desks, but nothing interesting was inside. The door leading to lock up was behind the lobby area, but she had no reason to go there. Coming back to the lobby, she moved steadily, both hands around the gun, holding it pointed at the floor. The staircase groaned under her weight, far too loudly. She winced, hoping if anything was in the building it hadn't heard the sound. Her fear turned to reality when she almost reached the second floor and she heard a noise, another part of the building creaking under something's weight. She peered up over the top of the stairs, the long hallway empty. She was about to start moving again when a crashing shot pierced the air, sending her to the steps. The bullet ripped into the wall not too far away from her, splinters raining down.

"Hey!" she shouted angrily.

"Hello?" someone called from the hall beyond. It was a man, but she couldn't see him.

"I'm coming up the stairs, don't shoot." she said, working up the nerve to walk into someone's ambush line. "Okay?"

"Do it, slow."

She put her hands up, still holding her gun, and advanced up the stairs. When she left the stairwell she could see him, crouched behind a desk in the first office to the right, pointing a handgun at her.

"If you're still a human, say something." he asked.

"Something." Julia said. "Can I put my hands down now?"

He made a face, but took the business end of the pistol away from her. "Sorry, its just sometimes you never know." He stood up from behind the desk to full height. He was a bit taller then her but not as tall as Nobody. His face was round and pock marked with acne, hair blonde and short, curling heavily like sheep's wool. He seemed composed but there was fear in his eyes. She wondered if she looked the same way.

"What's your name?" she asked, holstering her weapon.

"Chuck. Chuck Taylor." he extended a hand, and they shook. "You?"

"Julia. Sorry to scare you."

"Don't worry about it." He took a seat on the desk, laying his gun down. "Tell you the truth, I'm glad to see someone else. You're the first person I've seen here that's normal."

"Normal?'

"There was some other guy that was just babbling to himself about 'head juice'. He was kind of creeping me out, I saw him a few hours ago by the park."

"What did he look like?"

"Oh I dunno, looked like one of those freaks that shoot up a school, trench coat, black clothes, goatee, Latino or something, definitely not white. Freakin' weirdo, he didn't even look at me when he was walking by. He was saying something about a man trying to get his head juice."

"You ever seen someone named Nobody? Wears metal armor?"

He looked at her like she had grown an additional head. "Uh, no sorry. There's some guy running around here with armor on?"

"Yeah."

"Jeez, this place is so messed up."

"He's one of the good guys, believe me. Have you seen…the other Silent Hill yet?"

Chuck's eyes widened slightly. "Yeah, I've seen it. Don't suppose you know what's going on here?'

"No, sorry. I just got here yesterday, all of this is just crazy."

"Know what you mean. You haven't seen anyone else have you? I'm looking for a friend of mine, his name's Troy. We were lost, we drove into town and hit a dog or something. He's about my age, brown hair, brown eyes."

She shook her head and Chuck frowned. "Damn. It was so weird, one minute we were looking at the dog, then I was somewhere else. I don't remember all of what happened, but the next thing I knew I was locked in this creepy fucking padded room."

"Whoa, really?"

"Yeah. I had to break out the window with my elbow, thank God there wasn't wire mesh in the glass or I would probably still be in there."

"Then what happened?"

His visage grew dark, it was unbecoming on his gentle face. "I don't want to talk about it. Just believe me when I say, stay the hell away from the hospital."

"Thanks for the advice. What are you doing here anyway?'

Chuck smiled sheepishly. "I was lookin' for a gun. I used to shoot game with my Dad up in Canada, just makes me feel better havin' a piece with me."

"That's kind of why I came here too. Don't happen to know where I can find some extra bullets do you?"

"Sure, the armory is down this way. You know how to handle that thing?' he said, jumping back onto the floor.

"I have a Glock at home I take to the range every month. When you're a woman in the city by yourself, its just a good idea to have protection."

"Can appreciate that. C'mon, let's get you loaded up."

He led her down the hall, not looking too concerned but eyeing every corner and hall. Julia kept behind him, their footsteps light along the hall. There was a door down a flight of stairs pried open, their destination.

"Walk along the edges of steps by the wall or railing." Chuck explained. "You won't make them creak that way like you would if you walked right up the middle."

"That's good advice. You might have blown my head off if I snuck up on you though."

"You just gotta know what you're firing at. When you do a lot of shooting you get a built in safety that ought to kick in when you see another person in your crosshairs."

She let that settle in as he brought her into the room. There were dozens of boxes of 9mm ammo, standard issue handguns resting in a row on the wall. Cabinets had been marked with officer's names, more equipment probably waiting inside.

"Seemed to like locking their own stuff up." Chuck said as if reading her mind. "I'd shoot one of them open but if one of the bastards has something that can explode, well…I'll just try to find the key."

Julia pulled two boxes of sixty bullets each off the shelves. They would get heavy to be sure, but running out was something she didn't want to do. She didn't see any spare clips, so she pulled them out of the guns she wouldn't need, an extra two would do.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Just getting some spares in case I have to reload fast."

"Yeah but what about the guns you're taking them out of?"

"Yeah?"

"Now they won't work."

"So?"

"I'm just saying maybe other people will come in here looking for a weapon, and those two will be useless without clips. I mean, I'd kill for a shotgun but it looks like someone already raided all of the ammo for themselves." She hadn't thought about it like that, others coming through here.

"But…"

Chuck raised his hands up. "Do what you want. I'm just saying someone that came here before us left stuff for other people to use."

"No, you're right." she said, replacing the empty clips. "I don't want to do that to someone else."

"Well, what now?"

"I need to find any records I can about a murder that took place in this town."

"Probably find it in archives. C'mon, its down the way a bit."

"Sure know your way around here." she commented.

Chuck chuckled. "I've been hanging out here a couple days. After I got out of that hell hole down the street, I wanted a gun bad. Actually, I think Troy might be across the drawbridge, but I don't know how to lower it. One of them is just totally gone, looks like an earthquake or something took it out. I've been here trying to find a way to lower it."

"Don't worry, I just did it on my way over here."

He stopped walking and turned to regard her. "Really?"

"Yeah. I came from across the lake."

He started walking again, excited. "Wow, great. You didn't happen to see a motel over there did you?'

She thought about this, trying to remember the sights as she went by. "A couple, actually. I saw one on Sanford and the sign for another on Nathan. Then there's that big one."

"Big one?"

"The huge hotel over by the water. It looks like it was burned."

"Lakeview…" Chuck breathed. "Here's the archives." he said, shaking out of his thoughts. It was a large room, filled with boxes stacked on boxes. The smell of moldy paper was strongest here, pages of histories and tragedies filling the "UNSOLVED" section.

"Thanks. Any chance you can help me look through all this crap?"

Chuck shook his head. "Hah, if you had told me that before then I probably would have. Sorry though, I have to get to Lakeview. I'm pretty sure Troy will be there."

"What makes you so sure?'

"A hunch, I guess. Look, I hope you find what you need. I have to get going. I hate to leave you like this, but let me give you some advice. Find a walkie talkie, there ought to be one lying around here somewhere. If you turn it on, you can hear static when one of those things is nearby. They're attracted to light and sound but not movement, if you can stay quiet and don't use your light often, you won't need to fight so much."

"Okay…thanks Chuck, I hope we run into each other again."

He beamed, nodding. "Me too Julia. See ya." His footsteps moved unerringly out of the hall and down out of hearing. It was kind of sad the way she kept meeting people that she wanted to stay and help her but had problems of their own.

"You just attract all kinds of stable men don't you Jule." she said with a sigh. It was this place, when she was in control of her life and had a problem she didn't need someone to help her overcome it. Here, where nothing was in her control, she needed all the help she could get and it made her angry. At herself mostly, for not being able to handle it.

The boxes were well organized thankfully. She found several boxes in the year she needed, but they didn't seem to be in any chronological order. She sat in the center of the room with the boxes, taking out stacks of folders and leafing through them. Most were small, only a missing persons report or minor violation that was only one or two pages. They were interesting, but she stopped reading them after the first dozen or so, it would take all night to go through every single one with more then a glance. Two boxes later, she opened a thicker folder to find her parents' names in a report. Slowly she put the rest of the stack down, reading the report almost reverently.

HOMOCIDE INVESTIGATION CASE NO. 181212.

INCIDENT LOCATION 112 SAULSTREET

REPORTING OFFICER J FEELEY

---INCIDENT SHEET REPORT---

911 call responded by units at 10:34 am. Paul Opporo of 117 Saul St. phoned dispatch after finding a blood trail leading from 112 Saul. Officers J Feeley and D Severn discovered two victims inside home with multiple stab wounds. Victims were identified as Jason Stormson and wife Emily Stormson by neighbors. Crime scene units discovered murder weapon EVIDENCE #2321 hunting knife used on both victims. J Stormson suffered trauma to the back of the head prior to death. Complete fingerprinting of both victims and home led to no unidentified parties. Children aged 13 and 3 years of age were missing from the home, sliding glass back door open upon officer's arrival. Case transferred to Homocide Detective H Aaron.

---END REPORT---

There was an additional sheet of paper behind the initial report, stating that the case had gone unsolved and transferred the records to storage. She lifted that one back and quickly dropped it. Behind was a graphic photo of the crime scene, one she did not wish to look at or any of the other details. She knew where she had to go, her old house. If any clues could be found that would lead her to Jon…Alex…it would be there. She carefully replaced all of the files she found, Chuck's reminder coming into her head again.

112 Saul, back across the lake. She wouldn't make it before nightfall, but she would be damned if anything Silent Hill could throw at her would stop her now.


	5. Lonely Ghosts

Chapter Five: Lonely Ghosts

She tore the desk apart, finding the spare clips hidden underneath some folders. It paid to be thorough, she sat on the desk and right then and there loaded the two spares. There was no telling how soon she would be using these, she wanted to be ready. Stuffing the clips into her pockets and loading the cartons into her pack, she stepped quickly out the door. It was impossible to tell what time of day it was, only that it was still light out. She had the distinct suspicion things didn't work like they normally did here as far as days and times went, but it made no difference. Walking briskly, she made sure she wasn't going fast enough for a jog but close.

She was almost halfway past the bridge when she heard the siren. A tremor of panic ran through her body with each wail of that haunting blare, the glow from above fading and the Darkness closing in around her. Under her feet the bridge shook and swayed, any second Julia expected it to give way and send her plunging into the waters of the other Silent Hill. She was a decent swimmer, but her pack would weigh her down and she didn't want to think about what might be in the depths of the lake now. She waited a little longer for whatever it was that has happening to pass before turning her light back on. The bridge had been replaced by a thinner, rusted version of itself, the solid concrete she was standing on morphing into a latticework of metal, showing the churning waters of the lake below her. She kept walking, after minute or two she realized there was light coming from somewhere other then the end of her gun. Scanning around, she looked down underneath her feet to see something coming up from the deep. It was a glowing ball, getting steadily larger by the second, an eerie greenish white aura illuminating the metal around her. The ball moved out from under her and out to the right, very close to the surface now. It came streaming back to the bridge at a frightening speed, something bursting out of the lake in the air.

The glowing ball was in fact a bioluminescent bulb on the end a long stalk, hanging in front of the mouth of the ugliest thing Julia had ever seen. It jumped over the bridge completely, something fit for the ocean's deepest trenches. Its face was much like an anglerfish, oversized bottom jaw gaping open, a row of long sword-like teeth jutting out, more coming out of top of the mouth. Its eye was the size of a hubcap, a glossy fish eye staring blankly at the world. The body was scaly and thin like a snake, spined fins glinting in its own light. As quick as it came it was gone, splashing across to the other side.

The light bobbed in the water, going out a ways and turning around. What was it going to do, try to knock her off into the water? She dropped her pack and waited until it was coming at full speed before running out of its path. It didn't try to move towards her last second like she thought it would, but it jumped out of the water again. This time some kind of slimy blob fell off from its underbelly, hitting the bridge with a disgusting squelch. She was turning back to watch the creature when the blob made a noise. She spun back to the ooze, which had spread out from the original point of impact, at the center a cluster of rock-looking was still standing. One of them was rocking back and forth, then it split in half, about a foot and a half of slimy _something_ crawling out onto the bridge. It was lizard like, stubby legs and a long torpedo body, but its head was like the thing that had spawned it, large and toothy. It began making crying sounds and started dragging itself towards her.

She popped off four rounds into it, probably too many, but it stopped moving. The other eggs were starting to hatch, she starting shooting until the gun clicked empty. One of them was still moving, she quickly freed the tire iron from the loop on her pants and jumped on the last one, bludgeoning whatever was trying to get out back into the ooze that it came from. She heard the splash behind her and two more accompanying whumps! on the steel. More of the little bastards, her anger was rising and she didn't want to calm down. Swapping out the empty clip for a full one, she pounded up the bridge to the fresh clusters of eggs. It was simple, she had to kill every single of them before they could get out get in sufficient number to harm her and then do something about the big one dropping them off. She waded through the clusters, raining down blows on anything that moved, giving it a bullet when the first hit didn't make it stop. Her ankle suddenly exploded in pain as one of them snuck a tearing bite in, passing unnoticed from the small beam that her gun exposed. She lifted up her foot and savagely crunched down on its neck, shooting it directly through the skull.

There were two left when the gun clicked empty this time but she was the full swing of things and they died as harshly as the rest of their brethren. She popped out the last clip and slid in the last fresh one, the bobbing light of the main creature coming back at her. Standing directly in its path, she waited until it was twenty feet away to start shooting, aiming directly for the bulb. When it leapt out of the water she put one right down its cavernous throat. It rumbled its disagreement midair, nothing falling from its undercarriage this time. It kept going out for another run, seemingly unfazed by the bullets. She acted hastily, getting out the one of the spare flashlights from her pack and clicking it on. It took her a second to find the nerve but she turned off the light on her gun and tossed the spare over the side of the bridge.

Standing in complete darkness, she watched the little light fade out into the depths of the water. The bobbing light went down after it, the soft glow getting dimmer and dimmer until it left completely. She put on her pack and moved forward in complete darkness a few minutes, the crashing waves and the throbbing pain in her foot the only signs that anything existed. It was eerie, there were no stars in the sky or lights on the shore in either direction, like a void of nothingness. After she had been sufficiently creeped out, she clicked her gun light back on. From here she could see the drawbridge house, she was almost across.

Inside, the drawbridge was a smashed version of itself, but it would do. Sitting down on the dingy floor, she unhurriedly reloaded all the of clips, going through almost half of her rounds to get them full again. Her ankle still burned, she clicked the .45's safety on and took off the light, examining the wound. It wasn't as bad as the thought it was, her thick boots had protected her from the worst of the bite. She pulled off the boots painfully, looking at the damage. Not bad, but it still hurt like hell. Thankfully the guy at the camping store recommended it that she pick up a tiny first aid kit. It wouldn't last many encounters like this, but it would do for now. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she rubbed an alcohol wipe across the bites, the burning excruciating. She did it twice, no matter how it hurt, she wanted none of whatever what in that thing's mouth in her skin. The small band of gauze barely wrapping around her ankle three times but it already felt better.

She packed the first aid up and put it back. It wasn't much, but the drawbridge house made a somewhat safer place to wait for the Darkness to pass. It frightened her, but she shut off her light, not wanting to attract anything. The water could still be heard from where she was but it wasn't loud enough to mask the sound of something approaching. Gradually the adrenaline in her system slowed and she wasn't concerned about killing something but remaining undetected. In a way it was relaxing, the first such time since she had gotten here. There were no choices to make, no problems to solve, all she had to do was exist from one moment to the next. If she ever got out of here, things would be different. She'd quit that stupid job that did nothing but make her miserable. The measures of her life's work, how much money she had, the things she owned, none of that mattered in the grand scheme of things. Not anymore. Something that would make her feel alive again, breaking the monotony that she had settled into. Rock climbing instructor. Journalist. She used to dream of being a reporter in middle school, not the kind that told you about how a cat was stuck in a ventilation shaft for four hours, the kind that evil companies and government conspirators feared.

Time passed and suddenly it wasn't so dark anymore. There was something different in the air, something she couldn't quite identify but knew had changed. Clicking on her flashlight showed her that the Darkness had left, the normal Silent Hill had returned. If it could be called normal, but at least there were some lights on across the lake. The streets were back to the way they were, the inside of the hut still messy but acceptably messy. She was getting drowsy and this was no place to sleep. There were rows and rows of houses nearby, at least one of them would have what she was looking for.

Once a boon, she saw the light now as the double edged sword it was. There was no way to see without it, but they could see her with it. It just had to be dealt with like the pain in her foot. Julia moved carefully and quietly, stalking the first house she came with a calm but alert stance. If there was anything inside the house, she would find it. The front door was unlocked, she let it slide open all the way so she could see inside. It went right into the dining room, six chairs gathered around a dusty table. There was another opening to her left, she slung off her pack and shut the door behind her, locking it. Julia swept into the next room, the living room, a large couch and entertainment center filling most of the space with glass doors on the left. There was a hallway against that side of the house as well, a bathroom at the end. She could see herself in the mirror, she looked nothing like what she imagined herself to be. Haggard, hair unkempt and wild, face dirty. She was suddenly self-conscious of people seeing her like that, but only for a little. She finished inspecting the bedrooms, even checking the closets and under the beds. The master bedroom was what she was looking for, no windows, large dresser to push against the door. She went into the bathroom and cleaned herself up a bit, washing her face and smoothing out the tangles in her head. A little bit of the Julia she knew was restored in short time. Somewhat pleased, she got her pack and set up camp in the bedroom, leaving flashlights set around so she could see. She pulled the clothes out of the closet just because she wanted it to be empty, without anywhere for something to hide. Eating a little, she took off her boots and clothes, throwing off the comforter on the bed. She might be dirty already, but there was no need to make it worse. She shut off the lights and climbed into the bed eagerly. A shower actually would be nice, but there was no way she was going to get under the showerhead in Silent Hill. Images of something nasty crawling out of the drain or something other then water coming out prevented that. The little piece of paper Nobody put on the apartment door would be nice to have right now, if only because it made her feel better for whatever reason. Soon she was comfortable, warm, she fell asleep after only a few moments.

In the morning she gradually came out of sleep, unwillingly. It was pleasant to be resting, she let herself stay in that semi conscious state until her body woke up own it own accord. Stretching lazily, she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, finally getting up. There was light coming in from the edges of the door, she turned the safety off on the .45 off and left the flashlight the same way. It wasn't too hard to see even with the meager light, her eyes had become quite well adjusted to it. Pushing the dresser out of the way, she quietly opened the door and checked the hallway. Everything seemed to be normal, Julia went back into the room and got a large breakfast going. There was still at least two weeks worth of rations left, she was glad she had gone overboard on a variety of the ready-to-eat meals. There were so many items in retrospect that she would be glad to have picked up while the moment was there, but how could one prepare for something like Silent Hill without going there first?

When had her fill, it was time to get going. Rummaging through the dresser for a fresh pair of socks, she looked at her clothes. They were pretty nasty, covered with the stains of the creatures she had fought. Whoever the woman was that used to live her, she was slightly larger then Julia by both height and width but her clothes still fit well enough. She put on a pair of jeans that she would have never been satisfied with if she were trying them on at a store and a gray windbreaker that probably belonged to that man but fit quite well. Brushing her teeth with the travel kit in the bathroom, she ventured out of the house again, back to the fog.

Taking the exact opposite way she had come, she trod down the center of the road again. Passing by the large hotel again - what did Chuck call it? Lakeview? - she wondered if he was even still alive. Buildings would be a horrible place to be when the Darkness came, there would be nowhere to run if you were being chased. She genuinely hoped that he was okay, but going in looking for him in that place was a fool's errand. Besides, she didn't even know if he was really in there. And she definitely did not have enough bullets.

She passed the Historical Society again, it managed to look even more decrepit then when she last saw it. Coming to Carroll street, she made a right into its seemingly too narrow road. There was a large dark building coming up on her right, amusingly labeled "Heaven's Night". It was almost worth checking out, perhaps later. There was another building coming up that was far larger. It was painted white, peeling and cracking now. A large sign read "BROOKHAVEN HOSPITAL", it reminded her of the one she had seen at the entrance to the town. Although she couldn't get a fix on it, there was something off about the way the building looked. It was officially added to the list of creepy places she wasn't planning on going in unless she had to.

Very close to Saul now, Julia was trudging along Randell when she thought she saw the outline of a person coming towards her.

"Hello?" she called out, but the person didn't answer. Immediately she moved into action, dropping her pack and taking cover behind a pickup truck. Julia cursed softly, if it had been a person they would have responded by now and she just gave her position away to whatever it was that was coming through the mist.

It moved in jerking motions forward, something like the bodies she had seen in the first apartment building. Almost like a person, its upper body seemed to have been covered with a thick grayish skin that trapped its arms to the sides underneath, its face hidden by a fleshy mask. It seemed to be breathing out of a large, blackish hole in its chest, where gasses where churning. It seemed to be heading for the spot she was when she called out to it. Keeping her breathing as quiet as possible, she holstered the gun and slide the tire iron free, waiting for it to get closer. Passing right by her, it seemed to be oblivious to her presence. When it was fully turned in the opposite direction, she charged, jumping up from her crouch like a sumo attacking his opponent. The thing barely had time to register the new sound when she took out one of its knees with the force of a running blow. Even as it toppled to the side, it let out a burst of steaming tar from the hole in the front of it. She struck it once, twice in the head, a dull crack accompanying the second hit. It stopped moving, the grayish skin on the back of it skull split and leaking. She shook the blood and bits of matter off the end of the iron as best she could, she would have to hold it now that it was sticky again. Having a wet spot on her leg wasn't a very nice thought.

Looking at the tar while she got her pack on, it seemed to still be bubbling and steaming, whatever it was she was glad none of it got on her stuff. She left the body behind and pressed on. Walking down the road, she thought about what had just happened. As far as tactics went, she failed on calling out to something she hadn't confirmed was human. That would have to change. But deeper, her lack of feeling was disconcerting. Hell, she didn't even need to kill the thing, she wanted to. Was it so it couldn't find her some other time when the conditions weren't ideal to fight it or was it because she simply wanted to kill it? This town was rubbing off on her, she didn't like it one bit.

It wasn't long before Saul came into view, a simple green sign like thousands of others scattered around the country that denoted the place she might have spent the first few years of her life. No…it definitely was. The Stormson family was her family, this was her old home. If it wasn't, there'd be no reason for her to be here, there'd be no reason for Silent Hill to make her stay. Julia felt out of place, watching the numbers on the houses tick by until at last, the brass numbers 112 appeared on the side of a modest house. These were suburb style, a backyard with a tall wooden fence separating the plots from each other. Her house was a light blue with a white roof, a green welcome doormat in front of the innocent looking door. Julia opened the mailbox, pulling out some bills for one Arthur Stegman. There was a flyer from Midwich Elementary about an upcoming PTA meeting. Children were living- used to live - in the same house her parents were killed. She wondered idly how long it was before people had forgotten what had happened here and a new family rented it out, the ugly scars under the surface wiped away like they never existed.

Logic told her that any traces of her life or the lives of the people that used to live there over twenty years ago had been destroyed by either time, the police or a clean up crew that were working specifically for that purpose. But logic was such a liar in a place like this. Her heart was pounding when she turned the doorknob, it wasn't locked. Julia opened the door.


	6. Dementia Subterrae

Chapter Six: Dementia Subterrae

The door opened right into the living room. Julia stepped in and shed her pack with a practiced ease, locking the door with one hand but keeping her eyes forward. There was a black leather couch sitting in the center of the room, a smaller pine TV stand with an older looking TV and cable box on top of it. A light beige coffee table sat between them, still littered with soda cans and magazines. A brown leather recliner sat next to couch, ripped and worn from age with tape on the arms and still in the reclined position.

She stepped into the master bedroom, nothing moving in there. The layout was typical, the colors subdued and unremarkable. When she came to the two last rooms side by side she stopped. The one on the right, that was her room. She just knew, it had to be. The one on the left…she put away her gun and stepped into her old room. It had been converted into a half office, half storage space. Well maybe converted wasn't the right word, it was empty when they moved in, there was nothing to convert.

The Stegmans seemed to have only one child, a young boy. His room on the left was filled with cartoon posters and toys scattered all along the floor. She went back to the living room and through the sliding glass door into their backyard, keeping hear ears open. The grass had grown wild, climbing along the wooden fence that marked Stegman territory. There wasn't much back here but a barbeque and a gnarled, twisting tree that had branches going well over the fence. It was kind of sinister looking, but she put it out of her mind for now.

Over the next two days she learned a lot about the family that lived there. Art worked for the only cab company in the town, she didn't think there would be enough business here to keep it going long but they didn't seem to be worried about money. Vanessa Stegman spent her day taking care of their son, she couldn't find his name mentioned anywhere. It seemed like a happy household, was such a shame they whatever atrocity happened to them happened. There was nothing that mentioned previous owners of the house, no old deeds, no property tax records. There wasn't even a mention of anything wrong with the house or things they might have found buried in the backyard.

The second day she tackled the storage room. It was mostly junk that Mrs. Stegman thought was an eyesore according to her diary, but some of it apparently held great sentimental value to Mr. Stegman. Julia had cleared a path to the closet where she found a metal detector partially hidden under some musty jackets hanging down. It seemed to still be pretty new, if a little dusty. To her surprise when he hit the switched it chirped, waiting for her to point it. Leading around the room, it gave off a satisfactory electronic wail when it passed over something metal.

Julia went outside and started sweeping the lawn as if she were looking for mines. Almost immediately it went off, she retrieved a small gardening shovel and dug up something shiny, a soda can slip. Chuckling to herself, she returned to the search, casually moving the detector back and forth. When she came directly in front of that old tree it went off again, something unsettling about that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She had to go pretty deep this time, but the shovel hit something hard about a foot down. She pulled out of the earth a small wooden box with a brass latch and hinges, stained dark with moisture and dirt.

The had one thing in it, a white loop of some kind. It took her a moment to realize that it was a patient band. The ink on the lettering was badly faded, but she could easily make out "STORMSON, ALEX #73432 BROOKHAVEN MENTAL HOSPITAL"

Julia blinked in disbelief. Her brother had been admitted there? It was such a creepy building, even in the daylight, she shuddered to think of what it would be like in the other place. It was still afternoon, she had plenty of time before nightfall to get in and find out what she could, hopefully being out of there quickly. There was no telling what exactly was waiting for her there, but she knew a hospital would have records of all of the patients, if she could only find where they kept their files she would find something on what happened to Jon…Alex. What disturbed her most was the question if he was admitted after what happened to their parents or before?

Brushing these things out of her mind, she gathered what she needed. Snatching a small satchel from the storage room, she poured her entire stock of bullets inside and slung it on her arm. The other clips were loaded, ready in her pockets, the trusty tire iron she fit into the side of her gun harness, it rested against her torso snugly. It was time to get going, she found herself wanting to stay a little longer. There was no reason to, besides wanting to be as far away from that building as possible and knowing that it was her next destination. There wasn't a choice, she left her old house and went back the way she came.

Brookhaven towered over her as she walked up its steps. It wasn't just the way it looked, it was the feeling like the building itself was watching her every move. The doorknobs on the main set of doors had been removed, she went inside and it felt like she was being swallowed. There was so little light coming in from the outside, there must have been something blocking the few windows on the first floor.

There was a visitor's directory on the wall by the doors, she had to turn on her gun light to see it properly. Most of the rooms were unmarked, it merely had some key points for the general public to go to. That wouldn't help her find much but it was a start. The second and third floors seem to be where the patients were kept, the first floor administration. There were two elevators in the building, she didn't feel comfortable using either one. Even assuming they were in perfect condition, and she doubted anyone was around to keep them in top shape, placing her life in the hands of anything in Silent Hill just seemed like a bad idea.

The first thing in front of her was the reception, it seemed like a good place to start. The counter was about five feet high, a sign plastered to it reading "Brookhaven Hospital - The Sane Choice" The door to reception was locked so she had to push herself up onto the counter to get in. Funny, most of the doors she ran across so far were open as it was probably daytime when the town was abandoned. There was a large filing cabinet, she started flipping through them, mindful that she wanted to be out of here before dark. These were only schedules and brief notes of patients, most of them dated to have some kind of treatment or visitors coming in.

There was no way to tell how recent the dates where unless she could find the day everything stopped. Picking through the reception desk, she found a small calendar in one of the drawers. All of the days had been crossed off in the month of September up to the 12th, the year 1985. That was…what horrible thing had happened that day? It was probably something that was best not to be thought about, she concentrated on the task at hand. The appointments in all of the folders she found had happened or had been planned roughly a week from that day, these records were far too recent. If Jon was admitted before he left Silent Hill with her it would have been much earlier.

There was another room attached to this one, she entered a messy office room with three desks, all covered with papers. There was nothing useful here, they were just memos and reminders and notes on patients. Nothing was dated but she didn't think there would be anything on a patient from that far back just lying around. She unlocked the door on her way out and searched the rest of the floor, but other then the door with a code on it there was nothing to be found. Turned out there wasn't anything blocking the windows, there simply weren't any. On the plus side, nothing had tried to kill her yet. There was one stairwell, she didn't have much of a choice if she didn't want to use the elevator.

Heading up the stairs, each step echoing hollowly throughout the well. She wished somehow she had more hands to carry more flashlights, but she needed both for firing so the small beam would have to do. Coming up the second floor, she tried the door but there was something on the other side blocking her entrance. The handle turned, she could feel the door coming out ever so slightly, but there was no getting past whatever heavy object lay past her. Not searching the second floor bothered her since the file she was looking for could be anywhere, but she didn't have much of a choice. It might have to come down to taking the elevator if she couldn't dig up anything on the third floor.

She opened the door to the third floor and there was a creature passing by, dressed up in a blood stained nurse outfit, complete with conical hat. When it turned its head to look at her, the face seemed like it had been simply removed. In its right hand were two scalpels, poking out like spines. Julia was taken aback by the sheer sight of the thing, but when it took a step closer her body acted on its own accord. Her hands adjusted to its chest cavity and she drilled the nurse repeatedly at point blank range. It staggered back on and fell over, twitching, the scalpels scattering across the floor. Julia could have finished it off, but it was going to die soon and she heard voices coming from the left.

There was no light up here save her own, which partially worried her. She moved around the corner, there was a solid door that was slightly ajar, the sign next to it read "Special Treatment Rooms 1-4" The voices had stopped but coming from the number 1 door she heard a kind of grunt. Warily she crept up to the door and pushed it open. There was a scene in here, the remains of two twisted creatures lying on the floor, the combined pool of their blood stretching across most of the room. Against the back wall the man she had seen only days before was slumped down, sitting on the ground with his legs out in front of him. He looked years older, down trodden, sad.

"Chuck?" she called.

"Yeah, Julia, sure." he said, without looking up. "What'll they think of next?"

"Excuse me?"

His hand snapped up, pistol aimed directly at her. "Don't come a step closer."

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, centering her light on him. "Chuck, calm down, I'm not-"

"If you're the real Julia, put your gun down. I'll kill you where you stand, I've had the practice."

Thoughts ran through her head at a million miles a second. This could be a trick, but Silent Hill could have shown him things that would drive someone to insanity. She would never forgive herself for shooting a person, there was only one thing she could do.

"Okay, I'm doing it Chuck. There's no need to fire." She lowered her weapon to the floor and for the first time he raised his head to look at her.

"I don't know if I can trust you, but it would be better for you to leave. Even if you are real." he said matter of factly.

"Alright, I'm going. Goodbye Chuck." Julia slowly backed out of the room and shut the door. She shook the thoughts out of her head, saving them for later. Right now she had to focus, if he didn't want people around him it wouldn't be a good idea to push him. Especially when he had a gun.

Searching the rest of the floor that didn't involve going past the corpse in by the stairs, she found nothing useful. There was a janitor's room full of cleaning supplies, an elevator and another short hallway past that completely blocked by debris. There was nowhere else to go but the other direction from the stairs, she wasn't crazy about the idea but there might be something she couldn't afford to overlook here.

She tiptoed carefully around the dead nurse creature, eyeing it in case it tried to make a sudden move. There was a door almost identical to the one she had seen on the first floor which required a number code, but this one was open already. The mechanism that forced to door to close when there was no one pushing it out was broken and lying on the floor. Julia slipped past the door and could see why this part of the building had been sealed off, a long row of patients' cells stretched down the entire floor. They were marked so casually, S1, S2 and so on, if fit the mood of the building to reduce people to numbers.

Reaching for the first door, she swung it open quickly, ready for anything. Except what came at her she wasn't ready for, a burst of light flooding in from large windows. After moving around in the gloom this much, even the fragile glow that made its way past the fog was enough to make her squint. Julia hurried inside, not wanting to be caught off guard.

The cell was somewhat cramped, a light brown dresser under the windows straight forward, a sterile looking bed taking up the space between right wall and the dresser. The windows turned out not to be glass at all but a thick and very clear plastic, iron bars just past the window the weren't quite wide enough for someone to fit through. The wooden dresser was dilapidated had no sharp corners, the bed made of a hard plastic instead of metal, the sheets and pillow see through and seemed to tear a little when she merely pulled on them. It would be difficult to commit suicide in here she noted, then wondered why she was noting such a thing.

There was nothing but clothes in the dresser, nothing under the bed, nothing carved into the furniture. Reluctantly she left, it would have been nice to take a break in the light for a little while, but she didn't have all day. Checking door handles again, it was three doors before she found another open one. Almost identical to the first, this one had a frameless mirror hanging above the bed, a notepad and pencil on the dresser. When she walked over to see what was written, her reflection in the mirror caused a jolt of momentary panic. Julia took a breath tried to calm her jumpy nerves, reading the small pad.

It appeared to be pure gibberish, or at least a code she couldn't make heads or tails of. It looked like what would happen if a doctor wrote their signature and stretched it out into entire lines, it resembled some kind of lettering but only vaguely. Perhaps that was it, this patient was trying to practice his forgery. She turned to go when something in the mirror caught her eye. It wasn't the motion again, it was the _lack_ of motion.

Looking right at it, the mirror didn't show her looking right at it, it showed her from a profile view, as if she was facing the direction she had come in, facing the windows. Julia waved a hand in front of her face, but still the image did not change. Only her head and most of her shoulders were in the snapshot, seemingly frozen in time.

Slowly, the Julia in the mirror began to turn to face her. Gasping, the real one backed up against the wall, pointing the gun at the insanity in front of her. A slow smile crept upon the mirror Julia's face, not disappearing when something foul came from behind her. A yellowish, fetid hand came up and rested on the mirror's shoulder, its browned and cracked fingers nails gripping her sweater. It looked like something that had been rotting in a swamp for weeks. Another hand came up, this one holding a wavy bladed dagger of silvery metal. Still the mirror Julia did nothing but smile as the knife steadily drew back like a catapult.

It shot forward suddenly, burying deep into the other Julia's neck. The one backed up again the wall, scared out of her mind, saw the tip of the blade emerge from the esophagus a split second before the mirror shattered at that exactly point, as if it had been hit there. She saw her broken reflection in what was left, eyes open wide and breathing almost a pant. She had the .45 out in front of her in case anything was planning on coming out of the pieces, even if it was shaking, but nothing did. Gradually the fear subsided and her breaths returned to normal. She seriously considering getting the hell out of there for now, but there was still a lot of time to kill and Brookhaven wasn't going to get any less creepy.

When she exit the cell she expected something horrible to be waiting for her, but the hallway was just as empty as it was when she went in, the swirling clouds of dust the only sign that anything else was there. Taking a few moments to collect herself, she started checking doorknobs again. Why was she doing this again? Because Alex might have stayed in one of these rooms, perhaps he left something behind. Julia's pulse instantly quickened when she found another open door at S12, dread stealing over her. Who knew just finding an open door could be so nerve wracking? Bracing herself she swept into the room.

There were no monsters or mirrors in here, this room a carbon copy of the other two. The only difference from the basic model this time was a blue telephone. It looked very old, the circular dialing mechanism's number pad fading and yellow with age. On impulse she picked it up to see if there was a dial tone, but there was nothing. When she set it back down, the bell on the back went BRRRRING! and Julia nearly jumped out of her skin. She should have seen it coming but she didn't. The phone continued to blare loudly while she looked out the window, there was nothing to see but mist. If someone was watching her, it had to be from the inside of the building.

Wanting very much to not pick up the phone, the loud sound would probably attract things and she was curious. She picked up the receiver almost unwillingly.

"Hello?" she said.

"Let me hear you speaking just for me." said the scratchy male voice on the other side.

"What? Who is this?"

"I am the Crimson One. The lies and mist are not they but I."

"What the hell?"

"You are Julia Stormson are you not?"

"I'm…how did you know that?"

"You seek a lesser radiance, a walking sorrow…"

"I'm just looking for anything I can find on my brother, what's it to you?"

"You must descend under the earth to find the darkest of secrets, but beware. When the gate is open the angel walks, darkness and truths are what calls him."

"I don't understand, I have to go to the basement? What is this angel?"

"Do not face him. You will find answers Julia Stormson, but questions as well. Heed my warning, when the time comes to flee, flee you must."

The phone shorted out and went dead. She listened for a second for anything else, but put it back. That man…he talked like Nobody almost, but the voice was much different. Maybe he was trying to help her without showing it by coming up with a silly voice? No, that didn't sound like something he'd do. But what to do now? Was there any way she could trust some voice on the other end of a dead phone that was probably stalking her? It could be a trap, but why would a human want to lead her to an ambush? None of the monsters so far had been capable of speech, the only other two people she had met helped her. Well, at least the first time.

It was worth a shot, she decided. Anything that would help her get out of here faster, at least if it was an ambush she would have seen it coming. Heading back down the hall, she hit the stairwell, moving as quietly as possible. She waited tensely for something to jump out at her on the way down, but nothing happened. She couldn't tell what was worse, encounters with monsters or the constant terror of them.

When she reached the basement she could see light coming from under the door. Julia clicked hers off and opened the door as softly as she could. The basement was well lit for some reason, the hall in front of her going forward then left at 90 degrees, a door on the right corner. Slowly she slid down the left side, keeping an eye on the door before peeking around the corner. The hall continued some thirty feet and made another left, a door straight ahead and another one to its right. Julia looked at the small sign on the door closest to her, it read "ELECTRICAL ROOM". Ignoring it, she went down the hall to the corner again, peering just past the edge.

The hall ended quickly from there, an elevator on the left and a fourth door on the right directly across from it. There didn't seem to be anything down here, at least not in the hallway. Realizing how taut her muscles were, she forced herself to loosen up a bit while she read the signs. Boiler room, pump room, ah, behind her was the storeroom. Images of horrible things lurking behind the door danced in her head, she pushed them away and opened the door, .45 leading the way.

Inside was a mess, shelves and cabinets lining the walls stacked high with boxes of files. There was a mess of broken furniture all about and dozens of pages scattered along the floor. There was a solitary ceiling lamp hanging down that kept blinking and going out for a second, then remaining lit for a few more before repeating the cycle. She left the door open, she wanted the extra light and to see if the mystery caller would come knocking.

Unlike the police room which was somewhat organized, this place was an absolute catastrophe. The boxes didn't seem to be in any order whatsoever, they dated back thirty, fifty and even a hundred years back. Some of the pages were so delicate they seemed ready to disintegrate in her hand, the smell of musty old paper almost suffocating. Julia did her best, this was where she would get some answers.

She was aware that hours passed while she searched, but it was all worth it when she found the file "STORMSON, ALEX" Julia let out a relieved sigh and hunkered down on the floor, reading intently. It seemed Alex was admitted at just seven years old, due to problems at home. He suffered from violent dreams and was beginning to act out in real life. Just when it was getting interesting, from somewhere far off she heard a long, wailing siren.

"Oh no…" was all she could say before the lights around her began to dim. She could have sworn she felt the slightest tremor run through the floor, before the light went out even. Julia shoved the file into her coat and picked up her pistol, standing up and waiting for the room to become completely black. Hastily she switched on the light and examined her new surroundings.

The basement had been replaced with concrete and chain link corridors, she seemed to not be in a room anymore but in intersection of paths. It didn't matter how many ways there were to go, she didn't know which way was out. Panic set in, she fought it and decided to start going forward, eventually she would find something.

It wasn't long before she heard some kind of scraping coming from the distance and getting closer. She listened intently, it was almost as if someone was dragging something metal across the steely floor…


	7. Cinders And Ash

Chapter Seven: Cinders And Ash

The corridors seemed to close around her, the darkness choking her tiny light like a rag doll in the mouth of a canine. Julia couldn't tell where the muffled scraping sound was coming from but it was getting closer and closer, increasing her panic. Her first instinct was to just start running, it didn't matter where just as long as she wasn't here anymore. With the real Silent Hill in place, this was as dangerous as it was illogical, the thought of inadvertently stepping off the metal grating into the void she had seen on the streets came into her head. This was the only thing that kept her from bolting down random passage ways like the fear was telling her to.

Ignoring the scraping, she moved forward steadily, looking down every path with her light to see if there was anything there, a monster, a ladder, something. She ran out of path to tread quickly, stopping in front of a dead end, openings going both left and right. Before she could make a decision, she heard the scraping change from slightly dampened sound to a clear, eardrum tearing one. She whirled around to what was making the noise and nearly dropped her gun.

It was some kind of humanoid creature, wearing a thick, mottled skirt of dingy, stained material that looked like it had been stitched together by a blind man. Its torso and arms were bulging with muscle, its skin a pale whitish yellow that refracted her tiny light eerily. The source of the sound was a giant rusty butcher knife of solid metal, screeching against the floor from its massive weight. The most striking of its features was the head, it was wearing some kind of dark red helmet of metal and sharp lines, seemingly formed of triangles. Whatever it was, it was huge, covering most of the creature's torso and extending behind it.

Julia could barely hear her own screaming over the din of the gunfire, she was pulling the trigger harder then she ever had before. The shots ricocheted dangerously off its large head, causing it to jerk back and forth slightly but not very much. The bullets that ripped into its body left holes but nothing came pouring out, as if it had no organs, no fluid. Suddenly the muzzle flashes stopped and she could hear herself shrieking quite clearly, the only other sound a faint clicking that she realized meant she was empty. The creature seemed to shake off the barrage it had just taken and starting moving towards her again.

Backing up, she dug for another clip, popping the empty one out onto the floor. There was no reason to care about picking it up, time seemed to speed up as the creature came steadily forward and she couldn't get reloaded fast enough. Finally she slipped it in and starting firing again, the flashes lighting up the murky area and the white body of the monster in front of her. One of the bullets bounced off the wall nearby when it pinged off the creature's head, but she didn't stop until the gun clicked back at her.

The shots didn't seem to be doing anything but slowing it down, it kept advancing even after the second hail of gunfire. From its right the monster's body began to light up on its own accord and memories flashed in front of her eyes. She was going to die here, she knew it then and she couldn't even think to move. A different sound other then the scraping formed, almost a thudding, then she realized it wasn't the body lighting the monster up, it was something coming at it.

From the tunnel ahead of her and to the right a pole appeared and skewered the thing in the ribs, a moment later a shiny body followed, pushing the creature against the wall with the momentum. The giant butcher knife came up and Nobody dove left towards her, the huge sword passing over where his shoulders would have been and slamming into the steel wall as if it were paper. Nobody sprang to his feet and kept going, grabbing her hand and almost yanking it out of its socket as he took her right.

"Run!" he yelled as if she needed more prompting, their feet rattling the floor beneath them. She could barely see anything as he pulled her along, his bobbing headlight showing more of the dingy maze she had been trapped in but he seemed to be navigating his way though it easily. They came to something coming out of the floor, it took her a second to recognize it as a piece of fiber and a metal chain rising upward into the air.

He wrapped the chain around his arm and swung her close into him as if he was giving her a one armed hug. The armor was cold and it kind of hurt to be forced against it like that, she almost said something when he spoke first. "Jump onto my neck and hold on tight!"

Her mind wasn't working like it should have been, but the scraping sound could be heard now that they had stopped running, she didn't waste time asking why. Holstering her gun, she jumped onto his torso and held on for dear life. Nobody got the chain around his other arm and she felt his leg move, something clinking free. Suddenly she was in the air, rushing upward, and then she was in the middle of a human car wreck. They tumbled together, elbows and knees colliding, something hard coming across the top of her head.

Skull throbbing angrily and body bruised from the thrashing she had just received, she tried to focus her eyes on where she was. The room was cracked and peeling, the ceiling seemed to have a vein running through it, pulsating grotesquely. Nobody was on the floor nearby, his headlight showing some kind of laundry area. The chain that was around his arm was in the room across from then, disappearing out of a gaping hole in the wall. The metal man got to his feet unsteadily, retrieving a shield that was leaning against the wall.

"What…just…happened…" Julia managed.

"Be glad it worked." he breathed, extending a hand down to her. It hurt more to stand, but she wasn't about to lay down in here. "I'm just glad I installed a codpiece."

"What's…"

"Never mind, come on, we have to get out of here."

Somehow her gun had remained in the holster, when freed it she saw the light was moving erratically against the floor. Her hands were shaking badly and she couldn't make them stop.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Fine…I just…we need to get out of here fast don't we?"

"Yes."

She breathed and nodded, he jerked his sword free and led her out of the room. The hospital had changed drastically, the walls seemed to be moving underneath the thin layer of cracking paint. The hallway floor was little more then a grid of metal, just like the streets outside below the grate there was nothingness, stretching out to infinity. Julia kept her eyes on Nobody, who seemed to be unsure of where he was going. They made a left and he let out a pent up breath. She looked ahead and saw a door with a small blue man on it, badly marred.

"Can't you hold it?" she asked incredulously.

"That is not what I'm doing." he huffed, opening the door. There was something standing behind it in the changed bathroom, something almost human but with blackened, burned skin. Nobody calmly put his sword into its skull, jerking it back out and running in through the chest. The monster fell to its knees, hands vainly trying to grab onto Nobody's neck, but the large collar he was wearing kept it from ever touching skin. He kicked it to the floor and fell across it with his blade, severing its head clean off in a gory stroke.

"That was so gross." she blurted, blood spurting out from the neck, but he just shrugged. Reaching behind her, he closed the door. His mask obscured most of the features of his face, but she could tell from his eyes that he was shaken.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"One moment." he said and as if some invisible clock had gone off, he opened the door again. The hall looked nothing like the first one, not that it was particularly comforting. These walls seemed to be burning from the inside, embers leaking out onto the floor. This time he moved unerringly, working through the halls quickly. He burst through another door, this room unoccupied. There was however, a large gaping hole in the wall, leading out to more chain link ground and a wall of some sort.

Nobody hopped out and looked both ways before motioning for her to follow. They clanked along the chain link alley until coming out in front of Brookhaven. It looked so much more sinister now, some of the rooms glowing from a light inside. She shuddered, never wanting to go back there again.

"Come along, don't dawdle." Nobody chided. She noticed he had put his sword away, so she relaxed just a fraction, just enough to get blood flowing in her fingers again. They walked down the street, if it could be called that, past haunted and changed buildings until he led her into one of them. The front part of the building was a small place for rows of mailboxes and a cramped office. Nobody slid down the wall like she had seen him do before, removing his mask and helmet, keeping the light pointed at the wall next to her. Julia imitated him, switching off her light and shuddering.

"We gotta stop meeting like this." she said.

He grunted, staring off into space. She was nervous, she got to talking when she was nervous, at least when there were other people around. "What was that thing in the basement?'

His eyes focused on her, then moved back off. "Pyramid Head. He's…some kind of manifestation. It wasn't a good idea to shoot at him, I'm not sure he can be destroyed."

"Yeah, well, tell me that now instead of when I'm half dead from fright. I would have been all dead if you hadn't shown up again…how do you keep finding me right when I need you the most?"

"I don't try to get mixed up with other people. I was going to the hospital anyway to look for some other guy anyway and I sensed you in the basement."

"Other guy? Chuck?"

"No…was he the one with the frizzled hair and blue jacket?"

"Yeah, you saw him?"

"A little earlier. Do you happen to know his last name?'

"Last name?" she blinked. "Ah…Taylor. Chuck Taylor."

"Charles Taylor huh…" Nobody said. "What were you doing there anyway?"

"I…" she had completely forgotten about the file, she hastily checked to see if it was still there. Despite the tumble and escape from Brookhaven, it was still there. "Oh thank goodness. I was looking for my brother's file. He apparently stayed there for a little while when he was a kid."

"Hmm, that's interesting. I trust it was worth the risk?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. Funny thing is I wouldn't have even found it if it weren't for the guy on the phone."

"What?"

"Oh." she said, realizing that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to talk about it, but too late now. "Well, I was on the third floor in this room when the phone rang and some man told me to look in the basement. He talked weird, it kinda reminded me of you."

Nobody stiffened, only for a moment, but she saw it. "I mean, no offense or anything…"

"It's okay." he said, looking up. "I think I know who you're talking about, but that doesn't matter."

Around them the very floor started to rise up like smoke, as if it were made from gas, dissolving into the air. All the objects just melted away, the dark Silent Hill lifting up like a bad odor, fading into the ceiling. Julia would have been surprised and amazed, but she just watched with a sort of detached interest. Nobody didn't seem to care, watching the motes of reality fade in front of him.

"Let's go." he said, rising.

"Where?"

"My place. It'll be safe there."

"What then?"

"What do you mean what then?" he asked.

"I mean after I stay at your place and maybe get some sleep? You gonna disappear again, let me loose to get almost killed again?'

"Julia, he's looking for you now. If you don't come with me he might find you again."

"What do you care?" she said, startled by her own tone. She went on, softer. "I don't even know you, and you keep coming out of nowhere saving me. You won't even tell me your name. Why should I trust you?"

"It's not enough that I have come to your aid more then once?'

"No its not. There's a reason you keep following me, there's a reason you're staying in Silent Hill. People don't just hang around a place like this because they want to, they don't fight for no reason and abandoned the ones they fight for a minute later."

He remained quiet, his face stony. "Either you tell me…" she said, "Or leave me alone."

Nobody looked hurt, as hurt as someone like him could be. He turned away, putting his back to her. "You really want to know?"

"I think I've made it clear." she asserted.

"I'll tell you, but not here. We need to get upstairs where we can be safe. I promise I'll explain."

That seemed to be as good as it got, she pulled herself off the floor and followed him up a couple flights of stair in the old building to the top floor. There was a large lobby of sorts at the top of the stairs, this must have been a fancy kind of place before. In the center of the lobby was a large symbol of some sort that reminded her of a pentagram, but it had a lot more lines and designs she had never seen before. The door in front of it was unmarked but the thick threshold around it was covered in more symbols, from one side of the floor to the other.

"What are those things?" she asked.

"Protection." he said, unlocking the door with a key she didn't recall seeing him get out. Julia was right about the apartments, this one was large and what little furniture was left had been pricey at one point. The floor had a depression in the center of the room where the living room had been set, most of it was gray and dusty. The kitchen and a hallway were on the right, one large opening to the left that had lights on already. Nobody flicked the switch near the door and the somber living room was lit up by gently glowing lights on the walls.

"Bed, bathroom, food on the right." he said, hanging his metal objects on what looked to be a hand made rack of some kind. Julia shut the door behind her, taking off the gun harness and setting the iron and .45 down on the kitchen counter. Inside the fridge were packets of preserved food and dried meat strips, she opened the jerky and thoughtfully ate it while Nobody stripped off his armor and hung in on the rack. He disappeared into the chamber to the left, she quickly finished the jerky and followed him.

The next room was a sight to behold, a high ceiling at least fifteen feet up, walls curved together like a cathedral dome. Almost to the top there were shelves of books, a hooked ladder going to the highest shelf. A long, thick, burgundy carpet with Indian designs covered most of the floor. There was that old paper smell of musty things aging quietly in the air, the lone occupant sitting on a European style chair that looked like something from Masterpiece theater. It had a large backing and soft velvet cushioning, curling arm rests that were probably hand carved. Nobody looked different without his armor on, underneath it was a pair of somewhat tight fitting black pants and a long sleeve, cotton black shirt. He was reclining comfortably in the chair, one elbow against the armrest, hand on his chin. He looked almost normal, but a little sad at the same time.

"Where did you get all of these?" she asked, sitting down on the carpet in front of him.

"Some were already here, most of then I had to find and bring back here." He didn't seem to be paying much attention, brooding about whatever it was he was going to tell her.

"Look, if you need some time alone to think I can go somewhere else." she offered.

"No its okay." he sighed. "It's just been a while since I've had to think about what's happened. I don't ah…get company very often."

"I can see that. Well, whenever you're ready I guess." He sat for a while, thinking, but when he started talking it was like an avalanche.

"My mom used to talk about it like it was a holy place. When I was 7 or 8 she told me about the day I was born. She wasn't expecting to go into labor for another two weeks, so my parents were visiting some family where we lived around here. On the road her water broke and the nearest town was a tiny place nestled into the mountain, overlooking a calm lake…"

"Oh my…" Julia breathed, trying not to interrupt but unable to keep it in.

"They spent five days here while my mom recovered. There's so much history here…its hard to believe so much has happened in one tiny little place. She remembered it fondly, she always had this happy look in her eye when we talked about it.

"I don't remember my father. After I was born he wasn't the same, it was like he was waiting to get that hold on my mom. He was…abusive, controlling. Mom knew that I couldn't be raised like that, she secretly began to start stashing money away. When the time was right she took me and moved to Vermont, changing our names. I grew up without a father but happy, she told me he had passed away in an accident when I was just a baby. More or less true I guess…its funny, I used to think about how things could be better if I had a dad.

"I was sixteen when I woke up out of my sleep to smell smoke. When I opened my door the heat almost knocked me down, even today I remember that blast like it just happened. My living room was completely engulfed, everything was on fire. I was scared but I didn't know if mom had gotten out or not. I called out to her, I heard her yell something back, I tried to make it through but the fire…it burned my legs, my knees. My room was going up behind me, I…I jumped out the window. I don't remember getting to the hospital or the ER at all.

Nobody took a couple of deep breaths, when he starting talking again his voice was full of pain. "She didn't make it. A few days later a man came to visit me in the hospital, someone I'd never met before. He said he was an old friend of hers that entrusted him to deliver something to me in the event of her death. He handed me a letter and squeezed my shoulder, I never saw him again.

"It was a long letter from my mom. She told me all about what had happened, what my father was like. I spent four months in that damn room, reading her letter, recovering, getting get well cards from friends. I checked myself and went to the insurance company.

"I stayed at a hotel while I took care of mom's resting place, a small graveyard by the coast. She loved to go the beach. I had no family, no material possessions other then the life insurance check, nowhere to go, no one to go to. I didn't want to know my father, I didn't want to stay in Vermont. I took out five thousand dollars and put the rest into a savings account. Then I started looking for the one place my mother spoke of as if it were a paradise, Silent Hill.

"It wasn't easy. No one seemed to know where to find it and those that had an idea wouldn't talk. It was months before I had anything solid to go on. But when you have nothing else to live for, things become clear. I fought, cajoled, bribed my answers out of people and in the ten months after the fire I was looking at the bridge over the river. I had to go about a mile upstream before I found a place to cross, but I was inside the city limits. It was so hard to find my way around in the fog, but when I came into the city proper, I knew two things.

"One, there was something very, very wrong with this town. It wasn't hard to see. Two, that I belonged here. I knew these things on a basic level I can't describe. Right then and there I should have left, but how could I? There was nowhere for me to go. The first few weeks were the hardest, dodging the monsters, finding food. I was terrified beyond words like you were, I thought I had gone insane, but still I stayed. I learned to avoid them, I learned to hide. When the Darkness came, I found the places they wouldn't find me. Bullets stopped them, but bullets weren't infinite. I needed something else.

"During the day I explored, sought the things I needed. In the school I found the forge and I overcame my fear of fire. I harnessed it, it worked it, I found coal that would burn hot enough to shape metal. I made myself a monster to fight monsters…when the Darkness came again I was ready. At first I fought only in self defense, only when I was attacked. But then I began to hunt the things that lurked in the shadow, finding them before they found me.

"I don't know how much time had passed, but things changed. I started to feel the Darkness before it came, acquired a sixth sense for the creatures. After I destroyed enough of them they began to hide from me, fleeing if they could. I lost the urge to sleep or eat, I was scared at the what was happening to me but I didn't know how to stop it. I've been…looking for a reason why things are the way the are, maybe to stop them if I can.

"But there are places I will not go, not even in the daylight. I want to help you but…I am afraid. I am afraid of Pyramid Head. I can't protect anyone but myself, I wasn't even brave enough to save my own mother, the person dearest to me in all the world."

He put his face in his hand and didn't speak anymore. Julia had hardly been breathing, she didn't know what to say. She never expected a story like that, she felt horrible for making him tell it to her. She wanted to get up and tell him she was sorry, but suddenly he started talking again.

"Thanks…" he said, moving his hand away, "Thanks for listening to me. I've never told anyone that whole story before, it feels…good to finally let someone know."

Rising, Julia walked over to him slowly and crouched down by the arm of the chair. "You're welcome. I'm sorry I forced you to do that even though you were just trying to help. But I'm glad you did."

There was more she wanted to say, but she left the library and headed for the hallway, hitting switches and igniting bulbs all the way. When she turned on the bedroom lights, she found it to be large and unlike the rest of the apartment, it seemed to be fairly clean. The bed was a king size and covered in a light red comforter, Julia gratefully plopped down on it. There was an armoire against the right wall, a long dresser with a huge mirror that made her jump when she first saw it.

Getting off the bed, she lifted up the mirror from where it slid into the back of the dresser and laid it down. Jumping back onto the bed, she took the file from under her jacket, staring at it a while. Nobody's story kept running through her head, she tried to shake it but it was too strong. She sighed deeply and opened the folder, pouring over the information about the person she had come here to find.


	8. Darkness Calling

Chapter Eight: Darkness Calling

The small file didn't have many sheets, but they were full of documentation both typed and in a graceful cursive handwriting. The first one seemed to be a summary of Alex's time here, in block print.

On the case of STORMSON, ALEXANDER  
Report by Dr. Richard Nelson, Patient ID 73432

I. CURRENT STATUS: Alex Stormson is a 6 year old male admitted to Brookhaven for sleep walking, violent nightmares, screaming, sudden tantrums, problems with other children and unexplained periods of bed wetting that cease and begin with no regularity. Patient unusually withdrawn and difficult to provoke responses from.

II. EXAMINATION: No visible bruises or scars indicating physical abuse. X-rays determined skull was undamaged and urine samples revealed no abnormalities. Upon observation, patient appeared to be more talkative one day to the next; when asked to draw patient becomes extraordinarily quiet and unresponsive until finished see samples 001-004. When left alone patient occasionally whispers to himself, microphones placed in the room were unable to pick up intelligible words.

Nightmares and drawings feature a centralized theme of being hanged or most commonly a noose. Patient seems obsessed and simultaneously frightened of said imagery, it is worthy of note that his home contains no television or books with any similar images.

III. DIAGNOSIS: Unable to determine cause for behavior or patient's unwillingness to cooperate. Prescribed sedatives to aid in sleeping and general calming. Referred to Dr. A. Spengo for additional treatment.

The report ended, the next couple of papers were signed waivers and legal documents, it looked like Emily Stormson had been the one filling out all the forms. Was this her idea? Julia's thought process stopped dead in its tracks when she came to the samples of Alex's drawings. They were done with crayons, but the lines were unusually crisp for a six year old. The first page was a large noose that took up the entire space, the knotted cords detailed in every twist. It wasn't a particularly impressive drawing when looked at objectively, but the fact that he was so young and the detail was so spot on was unnerving.

If the noose wasn't bad enough, the next one made her inhale sharply. It was a little boy, the face a blur of gray, in a blue outfit, hanging from a tree by a noose. The next two pictured gallows, in some kind of cave or structure. It wasn't hard to see why he had been taken to Brookhaven, the images were disturbing enough to her. She couldn't have imagined how much they would have worried his…their parents.

Replacing the contents of the file, she got up and set it on the dresser. Why this room and possibly entire building had power she couldn't guess, Julia almost wanted to sleep with the lights on. But it was safe here, Nobody wasn't far away and if he said the strange symbols in front of his home were protection, she believed it. Sitting down on the bed, she pulled off her shoes and clothes she didn't need to sleep. The ankle wound she had suffered was healing nicely, although the recent trauma had opened some of the less healed scabs.

Hitting the switch and climbing into the bed, Julia had a hard time actually falling asleep. It wasn't so much the location but the images and questions swirling around in her head that she couldn't answer. It seemed the further she dug into Silent Hill the more she learned but the more confusing things became. After what seemed like hours, she drifted off into a fitful sleep.

In the morning she woke to a gentle light coming in from outside, double balcony doors mostly hidden by a white sheet let in the typical misty quasi-day. The bed was fairly high quality, it was the best sleep she had since she came here.

Padding out into the hallway, she found most of the apartment lit up quite well from windows, the lights that were on last night off. From the other room she heard a crinkle of paper, she yawned lazily and made her way back into the library. Nobody was comfortably reclined in the giant chair, intently pouring over the faded red book was in his hands.

"Good morning." he said without looking up.

"Hey…"

"Sleep well?"

"Yeah actually, it was a really nice bed. Where did you get it?"

He shrugged. "It was here when I got here. Help yourself to some breakfast."

"Okay…ah…would you mind looking at the file?"

"Hmmm?" he said, finally looking up. "What for?"

"I'm kind of at a loss about what to think. Maybe you could give me a different opinion?"

"As you wish. Let me see it."

Julia retrieved the file and handed it to him, heading back to the kitchen to pick chew on some dried meat. Thankfully she spotted some bottled water underneath the food on the top shelf, the jerky was quite dry and she was thirsty in the first place. It wasn't a glamorous or even very enjoyable breakfast, but at least she was full and had protein in her stomach. She inspected the pistol, remembering then that she had dropped the spare clip. Cursing under her breath, she reloaded it and flipped the safety on.

When she went back into the library, Nobody had spread all of the papers out on the floor in front of him, sitting cross legged on the carpet. There was something on his face she hadn't seen before, it wasn't a pleasant look at all.

"Something…wrong?" she asked.

"These drawings…this report, it was filed at Brookhaven."

"Yeah?"

"The noose, the other structure…"

"What do you think?"

He seemed to be trying to work his way around to saying something, that look on his face was positively graven. "Do you know much about the Civil War?"

"Ah…well um, what I learned in school."

"I spoke once of history and why Silent Hill is a special place. More has gone on here then could be documented, likely things that people wouldn't want to document. One of these things is something that officially never existed, but existed nonetheless. Underneath the streets of this city lies a prison for Civil War criminals. Only it was less of a prison and more of a…large interrogation room."

"Okay…so…what does that have to do with anything? I mean, its pretty creepy and all."

"The most common way of execution wasn't the firing squad. Supplies weren't easy to come by all the time and bullets had to be conserved to…keep the inmates in line. Of course, the only other option was the gallows…"

"What are you trying to say?" but she knew already what was coming.

"There is some connection with your brother's nightmares and the prison, I'm sure of it. You'll find few things in Silent Hill to be mere coincidence. But…Julia don't go there. Just don't."

"But-"

"Julia please. This is your life, I mean it. I'll be the first to admit I am afraid of some things, that prison is one of them. Just like the poor souls sent there to begin with, its almost a death sentence to go inside."

"There could be some clues there-"

"Just don't go." he interrupted again. "It's a disaster waiting to happen."

"I've got to go. Otherwise this whole trip is just a waste of time and I'll never know." she resolved.

He threw his hands up. "See, this is why I don't get mixed up with people. I don't want the guilt of your death on my hands, I have enough to worry about."

"Yeah, I'm going, but its not a suicide mission. You're coming with me."

"What? I'm not setting foot in there!"

"You don't want guilt? You don't want to worry about me? Then help me. Help me get in there and get out in one piece."

His head dipped down, his voice not as certain as it usually was. "I've met people that have come here before. They're always looking for something or someone, looking for answers just like you. No one comes to this place just to visit. Most aren't solid enough to face what Silent Hill is keeping for them. But you…you're stronger then that. You're braver then I am."

"How can you say that Nobody? You've spent years in a place that would have killed weaker people in days, hours."

"I'm a coward Julia. I wouldn't even save my own mother, I can't even get out of here. That's my sin, that's why I deserve this hell."

She stepped forward and grabbed him by the chin, looking him right in the eye. Sometimes you had to cut across someone's own neuroses to get through to them. "You are not responsible for your mother's death. If you had tried to do more then what you already did, you would have died too, you know she wouldn't have wanted that. You're not a coward, and I'll prove it to you. Come with me to the prison. I know you're scared, I'm scared too. But courage is about standing up when other people back down. There's no one I'd rather have watching my back then you."

Letting him go, she retreated but only a little. "Well?"

"I'm sorry…" he said, his head sinking back down.

"Pssh!" was all she could say, storming out of the library. She picked up the gun harness and jerked it on angrily, gathering her meager belongings and jacket. Slamming the door on the way out, she was already planning. The top of the list was heading back to her house and getting her things. Next was going to the police station to restock her ammo and find another clip, even if she had to take one from a working gun. Having only one to go through before she had to start reloading by hand made her feel uneasy.

Hitting the first floor with the apartment entrance only feet away, Julia was trying to think of where to start looking for the prison when she heard Nobody yell down "Wait!" His light, quick steps shuffled in descent, the man appearing at the top of the stairs.

"You're really going to go?" he asked, as if she had changed her mind in between a couple minutes earlier.

"I have to. I made this choice days ago when I flew out here not to stop until I had found out the truth."

Nobody rubbed his eyes, but he didn't look tired. "Do you even know where to look?"

She shrugged. "I'll start with the sewers I guess."

"The prison is under the Historical Society. I will…go too. You were right, I have to face my fears." His tone changed slightly, more in control like when she had first met him. "We need to prepare." he said thoughtfully. "And get there before noon, so when we actually begin searching it'll be around mid day."

"Why then?"

"The sun will be at its zenith, even if we are below ground it might somewhat lessen the horrors we'll have to face."

"Really?"

"I believe so, yes. Let me get my things."

----------------------------------------

They struck the old building two days later, sometime in the morning. There was no way for Julia to tell what time it was, but he assured her that it was the right moment. Nobody clanked along side her, walking sure through the thick fog. He wasn't wearing the face guard like he normally did, his large shield strapped across his back. This was his turf, as strange as it was Julia wasn't scared at all.

The building was as lonely as it seemed when she had first seen it, rickety and waiting to be demolished. The front door wasn't locked when they went it, the faded paint and smell of rotting paper pervading the dimly lit rooms. Still, it was easy to see without a light on, most of the rooms in the building were somewhat still orderly. It seemed like one or two people had come through looking for something specific and ransacked only a few of the cabinets and shelving. Other then that, everything here was simply a treasure trove of information about the town.

"I've always wanted to come here." Nobody admitted. If he was trying to hide the excitement in his voice, he wasn't doing a very good job of it. "There are answers to so many questions in this room. But only the superficial kind I think."

"I wonder who would keep all this stuff." Julia wondered, leafing through a folder on city zoning codes from the 80s. "Hopefully we can find something on the prison."

"Hopefully. I'll be back to sort through some of this."

If we live, Julia thought glumly. She realized he was probably thinking the same thing but didn't want to say it. Sighing involuntarily, she looked through the rest of the cabinet for something interesting. Nobody was engrossed in some ancient book, as she rubbed her neck the pictures on the wall caught her eye. There was an old black and white of the town church, she moved over to it and read the small caption underneath, telling her "Silent Hill, 1906" In the picture the building was much larger and more grand then the one she had passed by, she wondered idly why it had gotten smaller.

There were more photos running along the wall, she temporarily abandoned her fruitless search to look them over. The next one was of an old woman in a black dress standing under some kind of arch, her expression stoic and unsmiling. The caption underneath had been torn off the wall, ripped out by the screws. When she slid along to the next one, it almost made her cry out , the reaction getting stuck in her throat and only coming out as a little squeak.

"Find something?" Nobody asked without looking over.

"Uh…yeah I think so."

Her joined her a moment later, out of the corner of her eye she saw his hand jerk ever so slightly towards the sword on his belt. The painting before them featured the pyramid headed creature that attacked her, holding a spear. In the background, bodies were hanging from cages and on ropes, it was the most disturbing piece of artwork she had ever seen. The caption below it was in the same style and print as the others, reading "Misty day, remains of the judgment"

"Was this…"

"Here when people still occupied the town?" Nobody finished. "I wouldn't doubt it."

"He's down there isn't he?"

"He's anywhere. This painting is simply a warning not to trespass were we do not belong."

"I'm…going to keep looking." Julia said, forcing herself to take her eyes off the painting. She went to her search and Nobody did the same, it wasn't long before triumphantly said "Ha!", holding up a scrap of paper. They looked at it together, a crumbling, browned thing whose faded lines made a map of the prison below.

"Shouldn't be too hard to get around, although I'm concerned that it might not be an accurate depiction." he commented.

"Why's that?"

"Well, this paper is maybe forty, fifty years old. No doubt someone copied it from an older map, but its safe to say that no one's actually gone down there in a long time."

"Good point. What's that large room there?"

"Probably the execution room. If there's a gallows down there, it will probably be somewhere they have plenty of space to operate."

"That's where we need to go. Something vital will be there."

"You sound sure."

"Sure as I was born."

"Let's get going." he said rising, folding the map back up carefully and setting it on the bookshelf he had taken it from.

"Shouldn't we take that with us?"

"I have a photographic memory. Won't need it, someone else might though."

"If you say so…what now?"

"We can get down there from somewhere in here, I know that."

They pushed through some double doors into another room much less cluttered then the ones before. There were more paintings on the walls, but in the right corner was a massive hole, almost as if something huge had simply pounded its way through the wall. Rubble trailed out on the otherwise well kept floor, the crumbling edges of the hole framed a dark opening that Julia could have sworn was making a faint noise.

"Here we are." she breathed.

"No turning back now. You any good with that thing?" he said, nodding at her gun and clicking his helmet light on.

"Took some shooting lessons a couple years ago. Being here's given me some good practice." she replied, twisting her gun light on.

Nobody shook out his hands and let out a couple short breaths. Slipping on his mask, he said "Alright, let's do this."

They entered the gaping hole, stone steps leading down into the darkness. The sound of dripping water rose up at them as they descended down, the light from behind them growing weaker and weaker. There was no way to see the end of the steps, they just seemed to continue on forever, the same bleak stone tunnel around them. Their steps echoed off the close walls and Julia's fear was only beginning to grow.

"Ah…do you get the feeling we're not going anywhere?" she asked, breaking the monotony.

"We are, its just hard to tell with your eyes."

"What do you mean?"

"I can feel them getting closer to us. Even now the presence of our lifeforces is stirring them into activity."

"Sorry I asked." she regretted, earning a grunt from her companion. They continued along in silence until minutes later, at last they reached the end. It was a simple door, old and rusting from the water that seemed to be everywhere. Nobody kicked it open, she didn't fail to notice he still hadn't pulled his sword out.

The next room was somewhat clean but obviously very old. There was a desk to the right and some papers strewn on it, the small room otherwise empty. Nobody peered at them suspiciously, reading aloud "September 11, 1820 Prisoner number: C-221. Hmm. I wonder what that means."

"September…" Julia echoed, thinking hard.

"What is it?"

"Well…you know how it looks like everything just stopped one day around town?"

"Yes?"

"I think the day that happened was September 12, 1985."

"How did you know that?" he said, surprised.

"It was the last day on the calendar at Brookhaven. I think…I don't know, maybe that note is relevant to the day somehow. I mean, something important had to have happened."

"Important? I'd say more like a catastrophe." he disagreed. "But this is dated 175 years before then."

"Yeah, but it's the day that I'm talking about. The one right before, is that a coincidence?"

"I see your point. Well, we better press forward."

The next room opened into a hallway, the whitish walls reflecting their lights like glass. There was another door at the end, behind this one was a giant hole like the one they had first passed through, only this one was going straight down. Nobody peered over the ledge and quickly pulled back.

"Kind of far. Don't think we'll be able to get back up." he reported.

"Are we getting closer?"

He nodded. "They're still below us,"

"Down we go." she shrugged, but he didn't look very pleased. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Don't like heights." he said glumly.

Julia holstered her gun and climbed down to the ledge. "Then don't look." she said, sliding off the edge. It was farther then she expected but it didn't hurt too much when she landed amid some cluttered rocks. Gathering herself up, she pulled out her gun and looked around. It was the bottom of a well, the bricks still stacked upon each other. On the left, a large portion had been knocked out, beckoning her onward.

"Come on down!" she called up, stepping into the new area. It was a dried out sewer of some kind, the walls rounded and well worn from passing water. A second later a metallic crash sounded behind her, a small smile crept on her face as Nobody swore up a storm about his rear landing on a brick. He stumbled out into the sewer and Julia couldn't hide the amusement on her face, it was too nice to feel something other then fear for once.

"Shut up." he said sullenly, moving past her. She giggled a little, following in step behind him. There was only a couple places to investigate, the door ahead of them to the right was already open. Past the threshold was a strange sight, what appeared to be a gateway complete with door but instead of being in front of them it was set into the floor, the door hanging down into the darkness below.

"Another jump…" Nobody said despondently as she holstered her gun again.

"We'll go together." she promised.

"Tch…alright."

They stepped up to the edge, looking down into the gloom. "Can't see a damn thing." he noted.

"On three." Julia said.

"Don't make me-" he began, but she grabbed him by the hand and jumped into the mouth of the prison. This fall was definitely longer then the first, and it definitely hurt more. Lying on the ground of wherever she was, she achingly pulled her gun free and swept it around. It was some kind of cafeteria, tables with built in benches set out still in rows. Some metal trays were on the table and floor, cabinets and service counter installed into the back wall. The floors and walls were stained and cracked, the floor rusting and metal just like they would be if the Darkness were there. Maybe it was already.

Nobody pushed himself up to his feet next to her, but once he was up he staggered, wilting down and falling onto one of the benches face first. Julia forced herself to sit up, studying him.

"You okay? You hurt?'

"I'm fine." he grimaced, pulling himself up onto the bench. He put a hand to his fore head, eyes closed.

"You're not fine." she stated flatly, getting to her feet painfully. Her legs took the brunt of the fall, making moving an agonizing affair.

"I am, its just…so thick here. Clouding my senses, there could be hundreds of them all around us and I would never know until it was too late. Agh…I don't like this at all."

"Well that can't be good."

He drew the sword out of the scabbard, that sliding sound making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Taking off the shield, he slid his arm into the back of it, looking very much ready to fight a dragon.

"Here we are." he said.

"You ready?" she asked, not being ready herself.

"Nope. I'll go first, just don't shoot me in the back on accident."

"No problem."

Nobody lowered his head and whispered something she couldn't quite make out, it might have been a prayer but he didn't look like the devout type. When his head came back up, he set off towards the room's only exit, Julia shook off the pain as best she could and hopped behind him, ready for anything.


	9. Binding Promises

Chapter Nine: Binding Promises

The air was stale and reeked of rust and earth, small puddles of water dotting the hallways and trickling streams running down walls into gutters. Their twin lights showed a rotting old place that surprisingly still stood, especially since first door across from the cafeteria had caved in. There was another door on the right, Nobody checked the handle but it seemed to be locked or maybe broken.

"Drat." he whispered.

"What?" Julia asked worriedly.

"So much for an easy path to the courtyard. If the north side cell row is blocked, I don't know how we're going to get there." he said in a low voice. "But what I've been trying not to think about is how we're getting back out."

"It'll be okay." she reassured. "Let's just get to that big room."

He nodded and moved forward, the shadows her light cast on the walls making her stomach flutter when they changed too quickly. His shield was squarely in front of him, sword lowered but ready. There were bar gates of rusted metal every ten feet or so, apparently the designers of the prison didn't want anyone going too far without a set of keys. Most of the doors that were still standing were open however, she wondered if someone had come through here recently. It made sense considering the hole in the wall of the well but who in their right mind would come to the prison?

Something a few walls away groaned and Julia's heart almost stopped, her grip on the pistol tightening up. Whatever was down here she didn't want to even see, much less fight against, but at least she had Nobody with her. They crept up to a solid looking door on the right, Nobody cautiously reached out and put his hand on the ancient handle, twisting the mechanism ever so slowly.

"Open." he reported quietly. "If we can get across here we'll be halfway there."

She nodded and took a deep breath. Nobody pulled the door open and a rush of trapped air whooshed out to meet them, he slipped inside and she quickly followed. The rows of cells were on the left, decaying remains of beds and other things trapped behind dirty bars. She recognized the stains on the floor, one got used to the way blood looks when it is left somewhere to dry. This was an evil place, she never wanted to see it again.

They were almost halfway across the cell block when Nobody whirled around and made a surprised grunt, something behind her made a gurgling sound. She turned and aimed, but the creature before her made the usually automatic reflexes freeze up. It was enormous, at least eight feet tall with a bloated, pallid stomach that had some kind of oozing wound in the center. A black, repugnant fluid was leaking out of the creature's mouth and torso, it would have been somewhat human if not for the arms sticking out of it. They were going in every direction with no pattern, all holding some kind of club. The tattered remains of some kind of uniform was still visible around its legs, the midsection completely torn out by its girth.

How something so foul and large managed to sneak up on them she couldn't fathom, but it moved forward with frightening alacrity, its revolting gut and the multiple clubs suddenly within striking range. She got a shot off before one them slammed into her hand, ripping the gun and her light out of her grip. The next blow she didn't even see, it just struck her on the torso and sent her falling backwards.

Struggling for air, she sat up to see Nobody hard pressed, the monster was beating down on his shield with three arms, the sound of them banging against it almost one continuous sound. His sword was darting in and out, but there were more arms to intercept his attacks. Julia could see the beam of light on her gun pointing towards the wall, she scrambled across the dingy floor as fast as she could, hoping that there wouldn't be any more hits with her back to the horror behind her.

Her fingers closed on the butt of the gun, she twisted back and aimed at the monster, her light directly on its face. She pulled the trigger but it was suddenly not there, her two shots hitting the metal cells in an echo.

"Wh-what the fuck was that?" she stammered. "Where did it go?"

"I don't know." Nobody muttered. "It's still around, don't let your guard down."

Getting to her feet, her legs and now ribs aching but the adrenaline was pumping, dulling her pain. Taking up a position behind Nobody, all she could hear was their heavy breathing, hers quick and shallow, his long and deep.

"I'm scared." she said, without thinking.

"Everything is going to be okay Julia." he whispered. "Stay sharp, it's not going to let us go. The only way to move forward is through him."

His words and calm voice helped get her jitters under control, she stepped behind her until her back was touching his. The metal was cold and impassive to her touch, but she felt slightly better. Just when she was about to say something the creature gurgled to the right, she jumped left and threw her gun arm out. It bubbled and churned in pain as Nobody took off one of its arms, the sound something akin to what a drowning man shouting for help would sound like.

The largest target was its stomach, she nailed it repeatedly from only a few feet away while Nobody hacked off another arm, a blackish fluid spurting from the wounds. She had almost emptied the clip when the hole on the monster's stomach began to gush, splattering something disgusting onto the prison floor. At the same time, the enormous belly began to expand, a viscous sound sloshing around in the fleshy balloon that was taking shape. Nobody backed off, joining her as the stomach grew.

"Crap. Run." he said, and they took off, fleeing down the hall. He quickly slowed her down and pulled her into a crouch, pressing her against his body and putting his arm over her shoulder, head down. A millisecond later the jailer exploded, the gust of wind and ensuing eruption of some sticky black substance hitting them with force even after the short run they made. He untangled himself from her and stood up, shakily she did the same and pointed her light behind them.

The creature had simply melted, a pool of lumpy, mud like goo where it was been, what was left of the ragged and soaked uniform joining the numerous clubs scattered around the blast zone as the only solid evidence the creature existed at all.

"Well that was gross." Julia reflected.

"That smell…" he said, putting a gloved hand to his face.

"Can we go now?'

"Yes, quickly if you don't mind."

They came to the end of the cell block, another solid door in front of them. Julia was half expecting it to be locked, but it thankfully creaked open when Nobody tried the handle. He peeked out into the hallway and stepped out, helmet light scanning every inch of the next area they were coming into. Motioning for her to follow with his sword, they quietly stole down the hall where a set of double doors waited for them on the left. He clanked inside the doors where the sound of his metal feet disappeared, Julia was as close behind as she could, not wanting to be attacked with him in another room.

This room was different then the others, cooler and more damp. Instead of the hard floors they had been walking on, this was soft ground. The smell was something comforting and earthy but tinged with another, darker scent, something old and rotting. The sound of dripping was everywhere, echoing in the large cavern they were in.

It was kind of reassuring, she realized, to be in semi-claustrophobic halls then to be out in a large open room, where something could come at any direction. She trailed behind Nobody skittishly, almost running into him when he suddenly stopped.

"Julia," he whispered urgently, "look."

They were in front of some wooden platform, she realized it was the gallows she had been looking for the entire time. She looked at him for some kind of reassurance, but his eyes were hard and unforgiving. Stepping forward, she shined her light on the it, gruesomely the noose hanging from the top rafter was still there, she faltered at the sight of it.

Going around it, not getting too close, she looked at it up and down, hoping for some kind of clue. So intent on looking at it, she almost didn't notice the line of light coming from the distance. It was a thin bar on the floor, coming from the opposite end of the room. She hurried back to Nobody, who had turned back to the door they had come in.

"Hey, there's something over here…Nobody?"

"I'm sorry Julia. This is where you go alone." he said, without turning.

"What?"

"He found us. He's coming."

"Who- oh no. Is it…"

He turned back to face her, his eyes just as intense as she had ever seen them. "You have to hurry Julia. I will stall him as long as I can."

"Nobody-"

"There's no time to argue. If what you're looking for is behind that door, go and find the truth while I'm still standing."

He turned back to the door, there was no use arguing with him. She reached out and touched his armored shoulder, just for a moment, and took off running for the light. Already she could hear the scraping metal sound off somewhere in the distance, she felt so horrible just leaving him there but how could she stop now? The end of the cavern was a wooden door, she burst through into the light that made her eyes hurt.

Nobody waited patiently for the demon to come, positioned in front of the gallows. It felt like an execution, if a slower and more exhausting one. It was okay though, he wasn't sad at all. Finally the scraping came to the door, the creature banged it open, ducking its head down to get into the room.

"I'm sorry Mom. I couldn't save you. All these years I've wished I could go back, try to undo the past. I couldn't get you out, but it wasn't my fault."

Pyramid Head dragged its giant butcher knife across the soft earth, tearing a fault line in the ground as it went. Still, Nobody was unfazed, standing right where he was. "I miss you Mom. Wish things had been different, but I'm not going to feel guilty for living anymore. Someone else needs my help now, this time I can do something about it. All I have to do is face fear in its purest form."

He pointed his sword at the oncoming monster, which was oblivious to his words. "You're terrifying Pyramid Head. But its going to take more then that to stop me."

It got close enough to strike, lifting the weapon in the air as if it weighed nothing at all, Nobody leapt forward to meet it.

-----------------------------------

The room that wasn't on the map was oblong, wide and had another door at the back of it, across from her. A long wooden table with a row of chairs facing her took up most of the space in the room, in front of it was a solitary chair going the opposite direction. A single ceiling light hung from the ceiling, lighting the room with shadows at every corner, oddly enough it was electric. Nothing in the room quite captivated her as the man sitting in the chair, his back to her.

"Jon?" she trembled, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Jewel." he said a in an odd tone. She hadn't been called that in so long, there was only one person that it could be. "The biggest regret of my life." He sounded sad almost, voice rolling and stretching out his words.

Tears were running down her face as she moved forward, "Is that really you?"

He rose from the chair and came around to face her. He was wearing a pair of beige slacks and a navy blue button up shirt, his collar open. He was slightly overweight, stomach bulging out against the shirt, face rotund. On his chin he had a bit of black stubble, recently shaved but not recent enough to be clean cut. His cheeks sagged slightly, hairline receding and skin slightly yellowed. His eyes were just the same blue-gray tint as she remembered, but they were so lifeless, so cold. He turned the chair her way and sat back down, his eyes on her intently.

"Jon…" she said, stepping forward, but he held up his hand.

"No. No further. Don't come any closer."

"Jon?"

"No. That's not my name."

"Is it Alex then?"

"No. These are names given to me by people. Now I have many names, some of them given to me by people, some not."

"What are you talking about?"

"Julia Stormson. Biggest regret of my life. Funny, the choices we make seem like choices when we make them, but when you look back you realize that it was just fate fucking with you."

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I'm perfect. I'm an angel. I'm a saint. You're the sinner here."

"I just…I just wanted to know about Mom and Dad…I just want to know what happened. They were killed weren't they?" she said, body shaking.

"That so?'

"I just want to know what you saw."

"You seek truth? Ignorance is a shield, Jewel. You'd best get yours up."

"Stop talking like that! Tell me what you saw!" she demanded.

"What I saw, what did I see? I was there of course."

"You saw the killer didn't you?"

His eyes narrowed on her and he spoke very slowly now. "I saw him."

"What did he look like?"

"Look like?" Jon echoed. "I don't know. Scary probably."

"Do you know who it was?"

"Yes."

"Who?" she exclaimed.

"Me of course. I would have thought you figured that out by now."

Julia blubbered and tried to speak but nothing came out. "Why Jewel," he rolled on, voice returning to normal. "You look like you'd seen a ghost."

"Why…why…why…" was all she could stammer.

"Why _not_ is the question. I was a troubled child from the start, the visions of a hanging death danced in my head from the beginning. I used to love the way squirrels squeaked when I hammered nails into them. I was having so much fun in my hunting trips after school, it was only natural for us to grow apart, their only son. I remember the day so clearly when they told me you were coming, you ruined everything. Oh how they cooed and made stupid noises and drooled over this baby. I wanted to end you right then and there, but I thought perhaps you would be like me, and I would have someone to hunt with.

"You were just the miracle weren't you? They stopped trying to hide their revulsion for me, it was getting bad. All they did is yell at me, and then once he hit me. I was so angry, I ran while she yelled at him. I knew what I had to do, when his head came into my room I laid my bat across the back of it. The first hit didn't drop him but the second one did. He was still moving though, so I got my hunting Bowie and made sure he'd never hit me again.

"I had almost forgotten about her though, when she turned the corner she almost got a scream out. I was quick though, you gotta be quick when you hunt animals. Afterward I knew no one would believe me, I had to get away. Taking you was only logical, you might have said something and it had to look like a kidnapping. Oh, I'm sure someone suspected the truth, but for the most part they bought it.

"It was hard, the first few months, but it got easier. You were so useful, who would turn away such a darling little girl? I tried to start calling you Mary but that Julia name had gotten stuck in your head. When I thought it was time I left you, it was so hard to look into your face and see them all over again.

"I wandered for a long time after that. I started getting such bad nightmares like when I was a kid, they wouldn't leave me alone. Finally, this one time I was in the mountains with this other guy, a drifter like me. I woke up again in the middle of the night, sweat all over me. The fire hadn't quite gone out yet, I got out a good trusty knife and made him scream. I went back to bed a few feet from what was left, I didn't even wash my hands. Best damn sleep of my life I tell ya."

-----------------------------------

The creature was slow on its feet but it whipped around that massive blade like a toy. Nobody's shield had been torn apart by a glancing blow, he tossed it aside as each swing whispered by him. He'd opened dozens of wounds on Pyramid Head but it didn't seem to even slow him down. There was no way it was getting tired and he wouldn't last forever, not that he had to. Julia would have time to get away, he would make up for the life he had failed to protect all those years ago.

-----------------------------------

"That's how it was for a while, I'd move from place to place until the nightmares came again. I would find someone suitable and they would go away for a little while. Wasn't so bad if you ask me, but I always had you in the back of my mind. After, gee, I don't even remember how many years, I went back to the orphanage I dropped you off at. They wouldn't tell me anything, not even when I talked to them in private. I was so mad, your file had been lost or trashed or something. I found a little girl that reminded me of you, that did it for the moment.

"But I had gotten careless. Someone had been tracking me, studying me. I was careful, but someone smart was watching me. If the cops had been ten minutes earlier, they woulda gotten me. It was scary, but it was kind of nice to know that I had fans. I needed to get away and fast, I didn't have anywhere to go. That's when he first talked to me.

"He called himself John Foust. He was forcibly drafted into the army you see, he just wanted to get away. He deserted as any man in his position would have, fleeing to the North. But word travels, people remember faces and it wasn't long before he ended up here, a war criminal for crimes he didn't commit. September 12, 1863 they murdered him, many years later on the same day there was a calamity that freed his rage and made him real. He told me about the one place that would welcome me with open arms…

"Right away I knew something had changed in the long years I had been away from home. You don't forget a place like Silent Hill easy, nosiree. Funny how people see things different, most of you look and find a place that's hostile, scary. I see its beauty, its power. I don't know what happened, but this placed turned into some kind of Eden, I wished I had come back sooner.

"That's why they sought me out. They knew I was one of them. They whispered in my ear about how I would get everything I ever wanted, and you know what? They were right. Julia, the biggest regret of my life. I never killed you. But now they've given me everything, they brought you right to me."

Julia had been entranced, hypnotized by his voice and words. When they stopped, she came to herself as if she had been somewhere else the whole time. She was still crying, nervous, sick to her stomach, disgusted and angry all at the same time. Of all the horrors she had seen so far, this was the worst. The two paths of finding her brother and finding her parent's murderer have converged on one single ugly road, this one man. Her mind's wheels and gears ground to a halt a stopped, there was no way to make sense of this in the time she was given.

"Why…" was all she could stammer out.

"The why, the why…" he said, rising out of the chair, Julia backed up involuntarily. "The why is not the question. You must have seen the file, You must know the history of this prison. John Foust wanted nothing more to live in peace, they made his life hell until finally they marched him of out his cell into this room, this chair, and laid their bullshit judgment on him. It takes 1260 foot pounds of force to snap the neck when you fall, the guards here made sure they were well under this so that the executions would feature a struggling man in his death throes.

"They did the same to me, only they were worse because I trusted them. They turned their backs on me and day by day it killed me. They got what was coming to 'em, mark my words." He smiled, the folds of his face tightening to accommodate an unnatural and sinister grin, the kind of crazy smile that a mental patient would make. "Come now Jewel, give your big brother a kiss."

Opening his mouth wide, he looked as if he was going to yell, but his bottom jaw kept going down, bone, sinew and flesh popping and stretching grotesquely as it extended well past a human mouth. His teeth grew longer and needle like, tongue bloating out into a blackened form of itself. The dull eyes rolled back into his skull, the whites showing and staying there as his body expanded out of the shirt. His right arm grew faster then the rest, forming a solid cylinder of hard flesh. His skin grew hard, hair and pinkish tone giving way to layer of sandy brown scales. The huge mouth let out a terrible, high pitched call that grated on her eardrums, Julia screamed in terror and pain and started pulling the trigger.

-----------------------------------

Nobody heard her cry out and the gunshots that followed, if she was shooting it couldn't have been good but at least it meant she was still alive. He was only dimly aware of this, Pyramid Head wasn't getting any slower and he was, the sweat dripping off his face and trickling down his joints. He was beginning to give up the slim hope that he would get out of here alive, but it didn't change anything. Julia hurry…

-----------------------------------

Its right arm was at least five feet of mass, a battering ram of skin that it was trying to bash her to pieces with. Her shots thudded into its wide torso but nothing came bleeding out, the rough scales might have rendered it bulletproof. She was more or less running around the room like a headless chicken, firing over her should and staying as far from possible from that arm. She jumped onto the table, hoping to slow it down to where she could take an aimed shot. It simply dropped its arm on the table, splintering it in half as it climbed across the wreckage to get to her. She was already almost again the wall, there was nowhere else to run.

The critical moment in took to destroy the table, Julia had her chance and shot it in in the eye, the bullet tearing a path across it. It screeched so loud and sharp she cried out, covering her ears. The club arm came swinging, she moved but not fast enough, it clipped her in the shoulder and sent her spinning to the ground. She sat up against the and saw her death coming at her, the battering ram back to finish the job. She slid out of the way just barely in time, feeling the air streak by her as the impact of that deadly blow cracked the stone wall inches from her head.

By the time she lifted up the gun the rest of it had caught up. The one normal arm, if grossly elongated and sickly yellow, gripped her by the throat and lifted her clear off the ground. The gun slipped out of her hand as she tried to wrestle its vice like grapple off her, her panicked lungs burning for air. It leveled its face with hers, she looked deep into its mouth, rows of teeth glistening with dripping saliva. The teeth darted forward at her, she kicked out with her back leg to jerk to the left and out of its path. Her cheek slid across its face as it crunched into the wall, hot breath curling around to her face.

They had gone back across the lake to the police station the day before, to pick up ammo and another clip to replace the one she had lost. There was something that had been nagging her ever since she first came to the station and read the file on her parents, an evidence number attached to the report. After Nobody helped her search through the labeled boxes and dusty folders, she found it, a large, curving knife that still had dried blood on it. Not just any blood, her parents', the one the killer had used. She stuck it into her pocket in case she ever found the one that did it, she remembered it now.

The lights in the room were beginning to dim, but she fumbled frantically at her pants and gripped the handle, putting all of her strength and rage into one last motion, stabbing it in the neck. It screamed again but it wasn't so loud this time, fading. The felt as light as a feather and the world closed in around her. Darkness came and Julia knew nothing else.

Eternity passed, she opened her eyes. The room was a mess, the tables and chairs demolished and blood spattered on the floor. She felt something warm touching her hand, she sat up gradually, seeing the pool of blood that had extended out from her brother. He was human again, shirt torn off, a hole where his right eye should be, knife still sticking out of his throat. Julia stumbled drunkenly to her feet, dazedly looking for her gun and stooping over to retrieve it. It hurt just to breath, but she was alive and very soon he wouldn't be, her parents avenged.

"Goodbye Jon." she croaked. She should have been glad, but she just felt empty inside.

"Jewel…" he gurgled, more blood gushing out with every word. "There's a way out of here…you have to hurry, your friend will not last."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because…" he stopped talking and coughed violently, blood leaking out of his mouth. "Whatever part of me that was still human you kept alive…plus I'm sorry…let me help you…please…"

"Jon…"

"Listen…"

-----------------------------------

He wasn't bothering to attack anymore, simply trying to dodge that terrible weapon. His legs cried out in pain as he moved but it would be over soon. At least -

Shots interrupted his thoughts, echoing in the vast cavern. Bullets bounced off Pyramid Head's metal grating, it seemed to be as confused as he was, staggering back.

"Nobody, run!" she shouted and he needed no more impetus. She was alive, he hadn't failed. He could have almost smiled and he tucked tail and ran, Julia covering his retreat. He was about to collapse but forced his legs forward, making for the light he saw at the other end of the cavern. She was running along side him, urging him on as they passed through the door into some room. He noted the body and cracked table as they ran through, bursting past another door into some kind of lightless metal labyrinth that reminded him of sewers in the other Silent Hill.

He could hear Pyramid Head not far behind, its shuffling steps clomping across the floor. Julia seemed to know where she was going, pulling him down a hall and shifting abruptly, pushing him onto a metal ladder. He looked up, it stretched impossibly high into the air, he hesitated for moment, both from the sheer height of the ladder and the fact that it would probably come down with on swing of that creature's arm.

"Go go go!" she shouted and he groggily pulled himself up as fast as he could go. She climbed on a few moments later, the thin ladder creaking from the unaccustomed weight. Above him was some kind of metal plate in the metal ceiling, the ladder connected to it. Below Julia slid another clip in the began shooting off the ladder, the flashes showing him a circular room and a handle of some kind in the plate when he got to it. Whatever it was it was stuck, he yanked on it frantically and it budged slightly. Roaring in anger he pulled with all of his strength, whatever it was coming loose and swinging down on a hinge. Dirt hit him like a waterfall, if not for the brim of his helmet if would have gone directly into his eyes.

Light streamed in from above, the ladder apparently had been continued past the metal plate. He crawled the rest of the way out and onto some very welcome grass, he slumped gratefully onto the ground. A few seconds later he heard Julia climb out, the sound of clicking metal reaching his ears. There was a great clatter from the room underneath, probably the ladder falling as he heard her shut the plate, sealing the evil below once more.

"We're alive…Nobody we're alive!" she said as if it were a surprise. He looked about, they were in a graveyard of some kind, the usual mist reducing visibility to the rows of graves around them. No wonder there had been so much dirt, it must have been feet of earth that buried the hole. He heard her stomping, sliding dirt likely filling the hole again.

"Nobody c'mon, we have to keep moving." she said worriedly.

"Go on…I'll be fine." he breathed. His body refused to move, his armor weighed a million pounds.

"Bullshit! I'm not leaving you here!" she shouted, starting to drag him by the arm. Unconsciousness threatened to overtake him, he would have gladly let go until he sensed the tingle of enemies nearby. Not the dead, these souls had been properly honored and would not be angry. There was a number of them, drawn by his weakness and leaking blood. Julia would get herself killed trying to fend them off, that wouldn't do. Pulling on her heavily, he struggled to get his legs underneath him, every muscle in his body on fire. They stumbled along through the headstones, the hungry creatures just beyond his vision swarming closer.

"That shed…go there." he told her, pointing at the small building that was in the middle of the graveyard. They moved along, time running out, the forms of the creatures coming in through the mist. He was in no condition to fight them off, and she only had so many bullets. Getting to the building, he pushed off her and folded onto the wall. He went to put down his sword when he realized he didn't have it anymore, this irked him as he reached down clumsily to pull a blade of grass out of the ground.

"Nobody there's…what are you doing?"

He ignored her and pulled from his side pocket a square of some very special paper. He dipped the blade of grass into the stream of his blood leaking from his arm joint, using it to write on the paper. As he wrote them he spoke them, the letters lighting up as if they were made of fire, blackening onto the paper just like ink would. She watched in awe, when he was done he handed her the paper and opened the door to the shed.

"Put that on the door." he instructed, and promptly passed out, unable to even remember hitting the ground.


	10. Fading Echoes

Chapter Ten: Fading Echoes

He was aware of his own breathing first, slow and rhythmic all by itself as if it had a will of its own. It took Nobody a few moments to realize that he wasn't dead, he opened his eyes slowly. There was light coming in from the one window in the small shack, it hurt his pupils and he had to squint to let them adjust. The first instinct was to sit up, he tried but moving his skull nearly caused him to black out again. Doggedly he clung to consciousness, waiting for the spots in his vision to clear. There was a pillow under his head, a blanket over his unarmored body. When the pain subsided he looked around and saw Julia sitting against the wall, watching his every move.

"How do you feel?" she said, her voice a bit off.

"Like I got hit by a truck and he threw it in reverse to run me over again."

"Sense of humor still works. Take these." she said, putting some pills into his hand. He heard water being poured as he put the small pills into his mouth, tilting his head up to accept the cup that was pressed to his lips. It was cold, it felt good going down. He didn't know what exactly he had just ingested, but his trust in her was complete.

"Your throat okay?" he said, lying back. "You sound a bit hoarse."

"Its just a little bruised. Your arm was much worse off."

He had forgotten about it, reaching over with his other hand to gingerly touch the edges of his bandages. Just from the feel of them he could tell they were well done and recently changed, he settled comfortably back into the spot he had worn in. "Looks like you knew what you were doing there."

"There was a complete first aid book at the pharmacy. I don't know what I would have done without it." she croaked. "Just a good thing you weren't awake for my first couple attempts, it was probably painful. Are you hungry?"

"No…funny…I'm just tired. Its…something I haven't been used to, I haven't slept in years. Feels weird I suppose but its not altogether unpleasant."

"Its your body trying to heal itself. Don't fight it."

"Wasn't planning to." he said, already drowsy again.

"That thing you put on the door…was that some kind of magic?"

"Something like that." he yawned. "Did you…find what you were looking for down there?" he asked, nodding off.

"Kind of…thank you for everything Nobody, I could never repay you."

He smiled thinly, before the words could escape he was asleep again.

---------------------------------------

It was kind of scary leaving him the first time, but she trusted the small paper on the door to keep him safe and he always was. This wasn't a trip to the drugstore though, she was going the way he had told her, the way to a secluded part of the cemetery. The graves here were spaced further apart then the rest of the plots, some of the headstones ornate and quite pretty, but she wasn't here for admiring artwork. The two she was looking for were plain and sitting close by each other under a large oak, swaying in the light breeze and mist. The only thing on the tombs were the names and years, as if that's all they had been.

"Hi Mom and Dad." she said with a little wave. "You probably don't recognize me but its Julia, your little girl. Not so little anymore am I?" She started to cry but wiped the growing tears away quickly. "I wish I could have known you, but I think I turned out okay. I wonder if you'd be proud of me and how I've lived my life. I…don't know why Alex turned out the way he did, but I do know you tried to help him as best you could. I can't understand him but he did care for me a little while, when he was still himself somewhat. We were a family once, like in that picture, just the four of us. I spent my whole life trying to find you so that maybe I could find out who I am. Now that I have I realize where I'm from isn't who I am, how I act and what I do is. Right now I'm just a normal person that's come visit their parents' graves and miss them."

Bringing her hand up, she showed the graves the bloody hunting knife, the stains on it both old and new dried once more. "I know you probably don't want to see this, but I think of it as the symbol of your children. The one that put you here, and the one that put him here."

Using the blade, she dug into the grass where she stood, carving out a shallow, wide patch. Dropping the knife into the hole, she covered it back up with her hands, packing the soft earth tight. When she stood up again she was crying uncontrollably but didn't try to stop this time.

"I'm not ready to join you just yet," she choked, "but I promise one day I'll be back to rest with you here, in this place, where I was born and where you loved me." Going back the way she came a little ways, she picked some dandelions that were growing, strange to see such flowers in a murky place like this but it didn't matter. Returning to the graves, she laid a few in front of both. Wiping the tears from her face, she streaked the moisture on the top of the headstones.

"I have to go now. There's someone that needs my help. I'd appreciate it if you could watch over him." With a heavy sigh she turned around and headed for shed where Nobody lay. Her task in Silent Hill was done, her goals complete. She would have to go back to Julia Kaye again, her petty problems, her petty life. Sooner or later though, she would be back. After all, this was where her family was.

---------------------------------------

When he woke again, it was night, the room was dark and he could feel the lack of the sun beating down on him. His head was awkwardly positioned, he realized after a moment it was in Julia's lap. She was lying against the wall, dozing peacefully, the weight on his chest under the neck likely her hand. It was nice to be close to someone again after so long, but this wasn't meant to be. He sighed to himself and waited for sleep to come again, he didn't have to wait long.

The next time he opened his eyes it was day, Julia was gone. Sitting up slowly, Nobody then got his feet under him and squatted close to the ground. Long resting muscles and joints popped and clenched with recent activity, he stayed down until he felt together enough to stand. Carefully he did his routine stretches before any work out, taking care not to go too far with his tendons. His left arm was healing nicely, it was still sore to move but the bleeding had stopped and the healing under the skin had begun.

There was nothing else of use in the small shed, he squinted as he went outside. His armor was piled up nearby, some of it still caked with his dried blood. He didn't see his sword or shield, had he lost both of them trying to escape Pyramid Head? Those would be hard to replace but not impossible. The difficulty wasn't in the technique but finding suitable base metals and material hot enough to soften the metal. He was about to start looking around to see where exactly he was when Julia's familiar presence came into the range of his supernatural senses. He sat down with his back to a headstone and waited for her to come into sight.

The sword was looped around her belt, her gun holstered as she carried a plastic bag with something in it. She didn't notice him, walking into the shed until he said "Good morning."

In the blink of an eye her hand was on the butt of the gun, body tensed for action in the time it took to look over at him. She relaxed when she saw who it was and smiled, coming to sit in front of him. "Still feel like you were hit by a truck?" The harshness in her voice had almost completely disappeared by now.

"No, feeling much better. You did a great job on the arm and the rest of me, thank you."

"It was the least I could do Nobody, you almost got your ticket punched on my behalf."

"Could have been worse. How long have I been out?"

"A week to the day. I have some sandwiches here if you want one."

"I'm fine thanks. Do you know how to get back to my room? I'd like to rest in my bed if I can."

They spent another week in his apartment, Nobody recovering and Julia going through his library. There was an astounding mish mash of subjects and categories, all without any system of categorizing although Nobody knew right where everything was. It wasn't long before he could take the bandage off and let the scab heal over, nearing the end of the week he could start to work out with it again.

When Julia had woken up on the seventh day, he was sitting in his favorite chair. He heard her getting something to eat, and he closed his book. It was time to escort her out of Silent Hill, he could take care of the rest of his recovery. Truthfully he could have been okay the day he woke up for good, but it was nice having her around just a little longer.

Belting on his sword, he watched her chewing the last of her food. "It's time Julia Stormson."

"Time for what?"

"For you to go home."

"Oh…" she almost sounded surprised.

"Are you talking anything with you?"

"Ah…no, whatever I brought I can leave here."

He opened the door and waited patiently for her to go through, they walked without speaking back through Silent Hill, the swirling mist and empty streets somehow less threatening and more nostalgic as they made their way through town and up the sloping highway that brought her here in the first place. They came up to her car, still in one piece and still with its tire flat.

"This yours?" he guessed, and she nodded.

"Tire blew out. I don't have a spare or a jack to change the wheel, I don't care what happens to it."

He shrugged and they moved on, hiking back up the tall hill. At a certain point it leveled out, Julia said, "The cliff is gone. This all used to be an endless hole."

"It's gone now." Nobody said, and they continued on. He wanted to speak and tell her how he felt, but it wasn't right. It had been so long since he'd been this close to someone, let alone a woman. Time was passing too quickly and before he knew it, the bridge to Silent Hill appeared around the corner. He stopped short, unsure what to say exactly . "I guess this is goodbye."

"Yeah…" she said sadly, "Hey you ever…think about maybe leaving for a bit? Going back to the real world for a little while?"

"Sometimes. But like I said, there's nothing for me back there."

"What about now?"

"What about now what?"

She smiled to herself, "Nothing. I don't suppose you'd come out to visit me sometime?"

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing, but this is no place to ask someone to come back to."

"It's not so bad anymore I guess. Is that a no?"

"I just…think maybe I'm too scared to leave now. Like maybe I'm really a ghost that died in that fire, and if I step outside I'll just disappear."

"You really think that?"

"A little. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened. I'd like to Julia but this is my home, in all its evil, but I don't want it to spread any more then it already has."

"I see…well this really is goodbye then."

He extended out his hand but she pushed it aside and hugged him. He felt foolish for trying to shake, it was such a warm feeling having her arms around him.

"Thank you." she murmured. "Thank you for saving my life, thank you for helping me find what I needed to find and protecting me."

"It was nothing." he whispered back, suddenly not wanting her to leave. But there could be no compromise, no middle ground. He was bound to this place and she wasn't, it wouldn't be right to have her come back. She let him go and Nobody smiled sadly.

"One last thing…what's your real name?"

"Does it matter?"

"Does to me."

"It's not who I am anymore, but who I am now that matters."

"If you say so…see ya Nobody."

"Farewell, Julia Stormson."

"You can call me Jewel."

"Farewell then, Jewel."

She turned and walked away, leaving Silent Hill for good. This was the way it should be, but he couldn't help but wish she would change her mind and stay. He savored that last image of her smiling face until she was across the bridge and out of sight. He went back home, the place he was born, with a heavy heart.

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It was raining, the soft pitter patter of the drops against the buildings and streets a pleasant sound to hear. The night sky was in a foul mood as always, falling from above in a light song of reluctant renewal. He watched for hours until he was soaked to the bone, when the rain grew light he went back inside, down to his glyph protected room.

Inside the door, Nobody immediately sensed that something was wrong. On its own volition his hand quietly eased the blade on his hip out of the scabbard and he crept into the room. There was a presence here, but it was elusive, shifting, hard to get a track on. He didn't know exactly where it was, only that it was here somewhere. As silent as a hunting predator, he slinked into one room and to the next, searching for the intruder.

He ducked into the library and there it was, wearing a long coat and hood that covered its face in darkness. At its side were two large, overstuffed duffle bags, bulging at the sides. "If you can talk, I hope you have a damn good reason for breaking into my home. You'd better say something that convinces me that I shouldn't gut you where you stand."

"Something." Julia said, taking the hood off. She looked leaner, stronger, more purposeful and there was something off about the way he sensed her.

Nobody's jaw dropped but he quickly recovered. "How do I know it's the real you?"

"'Cause you can call me Jewel." she said. He relaxed, and she took off the heavy overcoat and hood, showing a kind of gray bodysuit underneath that he wasn't sure was made out of.

"Its been a while. You ah…seem different."

"I should hope so. I've just been making sure I wouldn't be such a damsel in distress when I saw you again."

"You were never-"

"I brought you some books." she interrupted. "I hope you like them, they weighed a ton."

"Really?" he gaped, unable to hide his surprise.

"Yeah. Thought it might make up for that saving my life a few times."

"I-I don't know what to say…how long will you be staying?"

"I don't know, a week or two. Then you're coming with me back to the outside."

He scoffed in shock. "What makes you think I'm going to do that?"

"Because I said so. Now let's get to talking." Everything about her was different, what had she been doing in the months that she was away?

"About what?"

"About you. And this place. And everything. I want to know how you like your coffee, what your favorite color is, what bowling ball you use when you play. I'll return the favor of course."

"But…why?"

"Why? That's a silly question. I think you know why."

A smile crept slowly across his face and he almost blushed. "Guess this would be a good time to say that I missed you." he admitted.

"Well duh." she grinned, "Why do you think I came back?"

"Oh yeah, do you remember Chuck Taylor?"

"Chuck? Yeah, why?"

"He wanted to tell you he was sorry for pointing a gun at you."

"Is that right? It's okay, sometimes it gets confusing here. But how did you know him?"

"Ah well, I got a message from him not too long ago, he just wanted to say that."

"Oh. Well I hope he's doing okay and he found his friend."

"I'll let him know if I can."

"Thanks. So…enough about other people…let's talk about you."

"Not my best subject…"

"That's okay Nobody. No one's perfect." she said, smiling prettily.

"Well," he said, returning the grin, "to start off with, if you really want to know everything, my real name is…"

The End

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Thanks: Konami, for the games, their excellent sound tracks and inspiring the movie, the contributors at GameFAQs for the Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3 pages, specifically Orca782, CVXFREAK, Conquerer, Starfighter76 for his excellent maps, thank you guys, your ideas and work influenced this fanfic and saved me from having to replay the games again. Lastly the reviewers here at Fanfiction and the people I know that let me write in peace, lol.

Next SH fanfic is mostly complete on paper, I'll get it typed up eventually. Later!


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